I have an older desktop PC that I want to install Mandriva 2008, Opensuse 10.3 and whatever the latest version of Ubuntu is on. I have a 40 GB HD and I was wondering if I should partition it into 3 primary partitions then install the different linux OS's onto each one or if there was perhaps a better way.

The reason I want all 3 is so that I can evaluate them against my needs and also because I'm completely new to the whole Linux platform. I want to know as much as I can about each one. From what I've read about the 3, they all possess different qualities that I would find useful so there is always the chance that I'd keep all of them.

Will the 40Gb be enough to handle all three? I have another 40 Gb HD on this computer but it's formatted to NTFS and I'm storing my music and picture catalog on there so I really don't want to mess with it if I can avoid it.

Thanks in advance

Hi and welcome to LQ.

40 GB should be enough depending on how much disk space you allocate each distro. I recommend you use the same swap space for all 3 distros. For evaluation purposes, you can get away with just creating a single / partition for each distro and not having separate /home directories for each one.

Dear sir/madam,
I would echo what the modorater said, just to add the obvious you will have to do a custam partitioning event when you install the first linux version. Crack that and the rest is easy

I believe most distros ask at least 2-3GB for a full install. A 40GB drive should be plenty. I would say maybe 10-12GB for each, and as stated above, use a common /swap partition. That should give you plenty of space for a full install, and room to tinker with new apps you want to install and play with.