Hey, I have searched through this forum for the best distro, and I came up with gentoo as the winner. but anyway, i am currently trying out quick systems (i have the bloatware RedHat 9.0 now).

What I really want to know is if there are any precations I should take before I try to install Gentoo on my system, for it not to interfere with my Windowz partition. I haven't set up my RedHat 9.0 system to the point where I am confident in my linux abilities, but I want to install gentoo so I stop double clicking thing =). My point is that if my windowz partition get @#$%ed up then I won't get any work done for a while. How can I look out for my windowz partition for now and make sure it is safe and secure, while I reinstall gentoo as my unix system.

I currently have a dual boot, redhat 9.0 & windowz xp. also, i am pretty experienced in reinstalling, understanding partitions and stuff like that (i had an acer computer once.. thats reinstall bootcamp ) if there is anything else you need to know of what i have just ask please.

how do i keep my windowz partition safe?

The only safe way that prevents any mistakes and stypidity between the monitor and keyboard: Take physically off the hard-disk that contains the windows partitions.

For less aggressive means that can save your day:

• Copy the contents of the command
  Code:

  fdisk -l -u /dev/hda

  to a piece of paper (or print it if you have printer configured). Do not save it to a file, because in those moments you might need it, you probably don't have access to the filesystem. With this information you can fix all the mistakes made by fdisk.
• Burn yoursef a knoppix cd. It can be handy when everything is messed up. (tools like gpart and lde are invaluable)
• Backup most important data.
• If possible, use FAT32 instead of NTFS; much easier to access, recover and comprehend.

lets say i did fdisk -l -u /dev/hda to make a image of my hd (make an image right?, i didnt check out what -l n -u does yet)

then i installed gentoo, but like i expected i screwed up and make my /dev/hda my gentoo partition and now windows is gone. how will i get windows back up?

if you haven't yet, read up on fdisk. if i'm reading between the lines properly, you have only one physical hard disk. tmk, i am not sure that fdisk can resize a partition without data loss.

if you accidently install gentoo on top of windows, your windows be gone.
you don't get it back. you start over.
you should become very familiar with the output of fdisk -l
notice the size of the partitions, the starting and ending cylinders. the
positions on the disk relative to the other partitions.
then when you are installing, watch very carefully where, and if the sizes
and locations, and positions that gentoo shows you don't seem the same
at what you were thinking, quit, and go look at them again.

In your scene the mistake 1 (made with fdisk) was writing new partition table that contains windows partition screwed. The mistake 2 was to install gentoo over the data of windows partition.

If you have information of fdisk -l, first mistake can be reverted, not second.

There are two things that can go wrong: one is installing in wrong partition, and as everyone said, read up on fdisk (or cfdisk which is slightly easier to use IMO)... but really, with a bit of care you can be pretty sure you won't screw up.
The other thing that I'd say trips more double-boots than mistakes in partitioning is setting up the bootloader. This is where you need to be careful. Understand your MBR, Lilo or Grub! Before you start, see examples of /etc/lilo.conf, or if you use Grub, menu.lst or whatever Understand the difference between installing to MBR, or, say, to the first block of boot partition. Be sure to run /sbin/lilo after you changed its config file! Things like that.
... heh. Looks like I was too late for creator of this thread. But anybody else out there contemplating setting up double boot systems, Gentoo or otherwise - heed my advice!

ok thx, im going to be installing tomorrow or defiently friday... so youll HOPEFULLY hear from me on saturday with my success story =)