Hard Drive Partitioning

[thully]

Hello,

How should I partition my hard drives if I want Windows, a Linux distribution, and room to test another distro/FreeBSD? Should I install any OS to drive 2, where I currently keep a small disk image? I want to install Mandrake,yet have room to test SuSE 7.1/RedHat 7.1beta/FreeBSD.

I have 2 hard drives, with the following configuration.
Drive 1: 13.6GB, 7200RPM, UDMA
BootIt NG - 15MB
Windows 4.3GB
Free 8.6GB

Drive 2: 3.8GB, slower drive
3.8GB Misc. FAT32

(I use BootIt NG for boot management because it's shareware and it will make drive images)

[chimaybleue]

It depends on the space and the apps you want with each distros ... If I were you, I'd keep my second HD for the experimentation ... You just have to resize the win partition ... This is what I would do :

- Launch a defrag (do it totaly)
- Launch your Mandrake install prog (see the docs)
- Resize the win partition when Mandrake asks where to install. I recommend the automatic partitioning too.
-Let Mandrake install itself (you should choose the Normal installation instead of the recommended)
-Enjoy my Linux system !