Ok i have a bunch of newb questions. so try to help me if you can plz =]

i currently have windows xp home. i have a 40 gb HDD and i just downloaded madrake 10.0. And id like to have one half windows, other linux.

First off, do i need to format my HDD then partition it? Or can i just partition with the availible space on my HDD which is like over 30GBs right now so i dont have to format and lose my stuff.

If i do have to format then will i just put in my first disk of madrake and it does operate windows does when u install and ask you to format and which partition u want to save too? all that good stuff. or am i gonna have to manually do it in dos? before the inseriton of linux disk.

Then my next question is... I have a Lexmark x1100 printer and its plug and play with windows. will this be the same on mandrake? or am i have gonna have to find drivers specificly for linux. because i do have the disk. but its for windows im sure. and same qustion applies with my stupid dell computers onboard video and sound card?? will those plug and play and have the drviers i need or am i gonna have to find out manufacturer of my onboard card then look on the net for the drivers compatible with linux??

i have lots more questions but ill save for other times. plz help me with what u can and make it clear which question your replying too. thx again

Don't format your Windows partition
If you use FAT you MUST run defrag in your windows partition before install Mandrake. I've read somewhere there are a problem related with Windows XP and Mandrake 10.0. I don't use XP! Make a search in linuxquestions.org and you will see many threads related with this issue.
I don't have any experience w P&P printers - sorry.

Resizing is what you are after.
Yes, you could back up all your information, partition and reinstall everything from scratch.
Resizing can allow you to keep the partition you have and resize it to allow for other partitions.
Keep in mind that there is always a chance of error. Backing up your files is still wise in this case.
As apimente.br mentions, you will want to defrag your Windows partition before resizing it.
You will need to decide yourself which tools you would trust with resizing your hard drive. Your drive being formated FAT or NTFS would play a part in your decision.
Some distributions have resizing tools. You will want to investigate them to see if they meet your needs.

Hi,

About the partitioning:

During the mandrake install, you can resize FAT32 partitions if needed, but it can be risky, so ALWAYS backup your data. I'm not sure if NTFS partitions can be resized with the mandrake partitioning tool. So If your windows XP is on an NTFS partition, you'll likely be better off erasing everything then partitioning from scratch.

Keep in mind that while windows only uses a single large partition, you'll probably need to have at least 3 partitions for Linux: a Linux swap partition (like virtual RAM), a partition mounted as / , and a partition mounted as /home . The size that the different Linux partitions need to be depends on your needs. I normally make a linux swap partition, / partition, /usr partition, /home partition, and /var partition when I install Linux, though.

-Nick

Hey,

I have XP installed on my machine. I used the defrag to clean up the disk and then backed up all important information including the registary just in case. Mandrake 10 is able to resize a ntfs partition. It worked for me without any problems! Good luck. Hope this helps. Both OS's work fine.

The mandrake installer will do everything you want to do. It will even choose the partitions for you(normally / and /home for a default install). When you get to the partitioning stage of the install, mandrake will give you the choices it has found. The one you want to choose is "use the free space on the windows partition" When you choose this you will then be asked to resize it. Once you have done that just click "auto allocate" and mandrake will do the rest for you.

have a look here,

http://doc.mandrakelinux.com/Mandrak...tionDisks.html

You should also be able to do all your hardware configuration during the install. Mandrake will autodetect and configure most if not all of it for you though. At the end of the install it will give you a screen showing you everything that has been detected and whether it has been configured or not. Your printer will probably work, your modem if it`s internal, which means it`s a winmodem will probably not. But there are drivers for some internal modems. Anyway, you will know after you have installed it how much more(if any) that you have to do. Goodluck. If you have any more questions just ask, the people here are only too willing to help!

cheers