A filesystem defines the way in which data is organized on the hard drive. Each existing filesystem has its merits and limitations. Some are more robust, others more effective: if you know your needs well, choosing the most appropriate filesystem is possible. Various comparisons have already been made; it seems that ReiserFS is particularly efficient for reading many small files; XFS, in turn, works faster with large files. Ext4, the default filesystem for Debian, is a good compromise, based on the three previous versions of filesystems historically used in Linux (ext, ext2 and ext3). Ext4 overcomes certain limitations of ext3 and is particularly appropriate for very large capacity hard drives. Another option would be to experiment with the very promising btrfs, which includes numerous features that require, to this day, the use of LVM and/or RAID.

日誌文件系統 (例如 ext3、ext4、btrfs、reiserfs、或 xfs) 以自己特有的方法在不必分析整個磁碟的前提下恢復破損的檔案 (如同 ext2 系統)。其原理是在實際執行檔案作用前於日誌中描述作業的內容。若作業失敗，可以從日誌中 “恢復” 檔案。反過來說，更新日誌中發生錯誤，祗是簡單地忽略該次改變；可能遺失寫入的資料，但磁碟的資料並未改變，仍然緊密地連在一起。其實，與檔案系統的交換機制無異。

在已有的作業系統 (視窗或其他) 內安裝 Debian，必須還有尚未使用的磁碟空間才能新增給 Debian 用的分區。大部份情況下，需縮小視窗的分區並重新利用空出來的空間。

The Debian installer allows this operation when using the manual mode for partitioning. You only need to choose the Windows partition and enter its new size (this works the same with both unencrypted FAT and NTFS partitions).

If Windows is using BitLocker-encrypted partitions, the steps to resize them requires to use the BitLocker Management together with the Windows Disk Management tool.

掛載點是在選定分區的樹狀資料夾，放置檔案系統的內容。因此，掛在 /home/ 的分區是置放使用者資料的資料夾。

名稱為 “/” 的資料夾，就是檔案樹的 根，其分區放置 Debian 系統。

Virtual memory allows the Linux kernel, when lacking sufficient memory (RAM), to free a bit of memory by storing the parts of the RAM that have been inactive for some time on the swap partition of the hard disk. It is also fundamental to the "Suspend" and "Hibernate" features of a system.

To simulate the additional memory, Windows uses a swap file that is directly contained in a filesystem. Conversely, Linux uses a partition dedicated to this purpose, hence the term “swap partition”. But it is also able to use a swap file as well.

When an encrypted partition is used, the encryption key is stored in memory (RAM). Since retrieving this key allows the decryption of the data, it is of utmost importance to avoid leaving a copy of this key that would be accessible to the possible thief of the computer or hard drive, or to a maintenance technician. This is, however, something that can easily occur with a laptop, since when hibernating the contents of RAM is stored on the swap partition. If this partition isn't encrypted, the thief may access the key and use it to decrypt the data from the encrypted partitions. This is why, when you use encrypted partitions, it is imperative to also encrypt the swap partition!

使用加密分區但未加密交換分區時，Debian 安裝器將提出警示。