Quick question. I have partitions as such on a drive:

<-/boot-><-----/ Linux -----><---Windows---><-Swap->

Long story short, Linux broke, and how. I left a few disc images downloading and set the machine to shut off after a few days, then left for vacation, so I think it tried to overfill the / partition. My question is, when I reinstall, can I safely remove the first two partitions and put a single one in their place, reinstall Linux, and not disrupt the order of things? Based on this thread it seems like partition numbering may get messed up, but will Windows care, or is it just how Linux looks at the drive? I don't have much in Windows, really, but I'd rather not spend any more time with it than I have to, especially installing it.

Thanks--

marc

IMHO keeping the partition scheme like you have it is probably your best bet actually.
With this partitioning scheme, you can leave the /boot partition unmounted after the system boots. This will help prevent you from accidentally damaging the associated files.

When you reinstall, you really only need to dedicated about 34M to the /boot partition.
Just reformat the /boot and / partition and do your reinstall. The windows partition is safe as long as you dont make a typo during the reinstall.

Cool, thanks. I didn't know that you don't have to mount /boot at startup. I'll give it a go, thanks.

marc