Embodiments of the present invention include a method for determining a file system layout on a disk. The method includes providing a default file system layout comprising a root partition, a swap partition and a plurality of unassigned partitions. The method further includes assigning a size for each of the partitions, sorting the partitions by size from largest to smallest and identifying available blocks on the disk for the unassigned partitions. The method also includes assigning locations on the disk for the partitions from the largest to the smallest wherein the partitions are filled in the available blocks from end to beginning.