Please help, win98-redhat , not lose information

[alkalinelito]

Ok, im using win98 now, i have 1 partition disk of 14 gb . I want to split it, to intall linux. I want to use partitionmagic , but i dont want to lose my information of win98, so can i make a new partition keeping my current OS and stuff on it ? . I think partitionmagic does this. How much GB should give to linux ? how much swap ?

[Dave's not here]

First you need to run scandisk and disk defragmenter and find out how much space the windows files take up. Then I would suggest leaving windows about 1-2 gb in addition to the amount of space taken up by the windows files. Use the rest for linux and make the swap twice as big as the amount of ram you have, but not bigger that 128 mb. This is just my opinion, there is tons of info on this stuff on the web (google search).

[Necro Lin]

Linux will take up a good gig or so. As far as swap space, yeah 128 should be good, unless you're using RH7.1, it asks you for some crazy amount of swap, but it tells you how much it needs during install. You shouldn't lose your info during partitioning or install, but do be sure to back up your important info. It is possible that something goes wrong & you can lose everything.