I currently have Win Xp Pro on one hd. The hd has to partitions, C: and D: The D drive has all my backups and the C has windows. My question is, if I install Red Hat on the C partition, will it harm my D drive? If not, what is the procedure to install red hat just on the C: and leave D: alone? -Thanks

You should be able to format the Windows partition and install Red Hat there. As long as you don't select "Partition my disk for me" (or whatever the installer says like that) and you manually use fdisk or cfdisk your backup partition should be fine.

Now, the usefulness of the backup partition could be in question depending on the filesystem it has. If it is FAT32 then you can read from and write to it in Linux. If it is NTFS (the WinXP default) then you will only be able to read from it.

You could always copy your backups to your C: partition and fdisk the D: partition, change it to a Linux-friendly filesystem, and then copy the backups back.

So dont use the automatic partion from red hat? Just format my C to fat32 and install red hat on that right? What option will red hat give me to do that?

Here is the Redhat installation guide for version 9
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...install-guide/

Unlike windows linux uses more then one partition. The default Redhat creates three.
/ (root partition, /boot and a swap. You can get away with one partition i.e. no swap partition (similar to windows virtual memory) if you have lots of RAM (like >=512 but it really depends on the apps you run) but I suggest creating one anyway.

You really want to use a native linux filesystem and not FAT32. If you select the custom installation method then you have complete control over how the drive is partitioned and what gets installed. Anytime you mess with repartitioning the drive it is possible to corrupt existing data.

If you delete the c: drive you can create 3 primary partitions to use as a /boot /swap and / partition. Make the first your /boot and size it for 100mb. The 2nd your swap of 512mb. The 3rd will be / and it will fill up the remaining free space. Its not difficult to partition the drive but if your not familar with the procedure it is easy to make a mistake.

BTW verson 9 is no longer being maintained by Redhat. You might have problems installing and running if you hardware is fairly new. What are your hardware specs?

Thanks for the help, someone told me I should use Fedora Core 4, is that any good? If I'm installing from a Network Server (FTP), should I download the 4 disc iso or the full dvd iso?

I believe FC4 was just released. Check the FC forum for installation problems. It is similar to Redhat.