As the title makes clear, I'm going to try to install Windows 7, OpenSUSE and Debian side-by-side. I haven't started the process yet, and am using the freshly (not by me) installed windows 7 Ultimate on a new computer (thinkpad e40(14"), but the specifics shouldn't be awfully important) to research the installation process before destroying something. I'm not completely new to Linux: I have been using Ubuntu casually (e.i. not meddling with the settings too much) for about a year now, but want to try something new.
Anyway, the thing I have the most problems with is the partitioning of the hard drive. I have a 300GB hard drive (I might be getting an external one for long-term storage), in which I'll install everything.
The problem is that I have two primary partitions: the Windows 7 one and a 100MB one with a chinese title, which I figured out is some kind of a system restoration thing. The problem is that I don't have space to have all OSes as primary partitions (of which I can only have 3(?) if I want logical partitions), yet I heard from somewhere they have to be (?).
So, how should I partition the disk? Can I install a Linux on a non-primary partition?
The second problem is file (music, movie, text) storage. Can I have the /home of both Linuxes on the same hard drive, in addition to the windows files? I have understood the standard Linux file system (ext3(?))can't be opened with Windows. So can the Linux /home partition be a windows file system (fat(?))? It would be highly preferable to have all files accessible from all OSes, because I plan to use them all quite often.
Right now my partition s etup would be this:
100 MBxxxxx29 GBxxxxxx20GBxxxxx20GBxxxxxxx230GB
系统保留xxxxWindows 7xxDebianxxxOpenSUSExxStorage
PrimaryxxxxxPrimaryxxxxxPrimaryxxxExtendedxxxExtended
Does this setup look good? Should I make the Debian partition extended as well and make the storage primary?
One more thing: the bootloadper. Which should I use, and which partition should I install it in? I have little knowledge about bootloaders apart from their existence and that GRUB is what I'll likely use.
I understand this is quite a mouthful, but any amount of information (or links) would be very helpful; I hope I can piece them all together to get something coherent.
PS. I might be making this into a tutorial when I get the process done, so helping me should help the community as well
Thanks in advance,
Omnilogist