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How to install Red Hat Linux 9

I just got Red Hat Linux 9 on a disk. I do not have any packaging or a manual. I do not know much at all about linux and I really need help installing it. Mostly the partioning. How should I partion my 80GB Drive, I already have windows xp on it and wish to keep it with a boot menu to choose my OS on start-up. Please help.

Joe, the manual doesn't help that much...
Best is to have a reference manual about Linux.
I use "The complete reference: Linux (Osboorne)" + Google.
With regards to partioning, the size depends on what you
want to do with the Linux installation. 10GB should be enough
just to install Linux... How much does your Windows XP occupy?

re: How to install Red Hat Linux 9

;i'm new here, so i'm not the one to answer your question directly, but perhaps i can help you hunt down some answers.

;you may also want to include some more of your system specifics.

;the first thing i know you will have to do is a *non-destructive* repartition of your hard disk:

Quote:

"The usual way to resize an existing partition is to delete it (thus destroying all data on that partition) and recreate it. Before repartitioning your drives, back up your system. After resizing the partitions, you can reinstall your original software from the backup. However, there are several programs available for MS-DOS that resize partitions nondestructively. One of these is known as FIPS and can be found on many Linux FTP sites.

Also, keep in mind that because you'll be shrinking your original partitions, you may not have space to reinstall everything. In this case, you need to delete enough unwanted software to allow the rest to fit on the smaller partitions."

From "Running Linux, 3rd Edition"
By Matt Welsh, Matthias Kalle Dalheimer, and Lar Kaufman
ISBN 1-56592-469-X
Third Edition, published August 1999

;check that book out. it's excellent. they're on 4th ed. now.

;here are some other threads on dual booting that might help you out:

;off-site HOW-TO's:

;hope that helps.

;treehead

I have a pentium 4 2.4Ghz processor. 80GB Western Digital 8MB cache hard drive. 512mb pc2100 ram.

Greetings and welcome
Basically, you will have to plan your partitioning, your package/software selection and install a bootloader to allow you to choose your OS at startup. Boot to CD1 and follow the install instructions. You'll want around 6GB minimum for your / or root partition and you can choose which packages you'll install, usually a desktop manager and some desktop programs, like OpenOffice and XMMS. Just be sure you don't initialize your hard drive when you begin partitioning. I made that mistake, it tends to eat everything on the hard drive.