I've been seriously considering getting Mandrake Linux 9 onto my computer, where I currently have Windows 98 SE, and I wanted to get everyone's opinion about something: Would it be best for me to go ahead and partition my hard drive (30 GB, which I would split evenly between Windows and Mandrake Linux), or should I go ahead and buy a second hard drive for Linux?

While I have heard that Mandrake Linux does include a utility for partitioning the hard drive, I've also heard that if Windows and Linux and their associated programs and applications reside on two physically seperate hard drives that this eliminates any and all possibility of Windows interfering with Linux. Would I do better to go ahead and buy a second hard drive and have it installed, or is there not really much point at all in getting a second hard drive?

Thanx in advance,
Fred

Matter not. I don't know how long you'd be using Linux. Maybe a month. Maybe a week. Is it worth the price of a new HD?

I put all distros and Windows on the same HD. Even some space for My Doc.

You MUST thorough scandisk AND fdisk AND back up bookmarks & personal files before partitioning.

He's asking for advice, not ill considered judgements.

If you have the resources, I'm a big fan of two physical drives, as you get curious about different distros, it just makes it easier to wipe out the play drive and keep the windows drive intact and safe for the business end of things... well, until you feel its time to evict Redmond from your lifestyle.

Re-partitioning the existent drive and keeping the windows install intact usually requires a toy like Partition Magic, I think RH ships with a utility like this onboard now... regardless, I inherently distrust any utility with "magic" in the title.

Cheers,

Finegan