ok.........
for my partitions, what values should i give for the "/", "/usrs", "swap" etc.

and my last unsureity (<<--dunno a better word...) is
about the partitions. I dont need to do n e thing b4 installing other than defrag? I mean after the install i can partition and move the linux files to the new partition? Please clear this up 4 me.

Thanks in advance to n e 1 who helps,
-Alex

btw-system info for install #1 is
40GB HD
Intel Celeron 1.2 GHz
128MB Ram

If ya need n e more info just say

all depends on you needs. however 150-200 mb will be enough for swap.
/usr partions usually takes more than 1.2 GB (with development libs). for / some 600-1000 MB will be enough.

since linux uses seperate pariton (or file) for virtual memory(swap) defragment is not needed.

20mb /boot
128mb - 256mb swap
everything else /

that should work alright
put your /boot as noauto in your fstab file
unmounted boot partitions are cool

for a fast home use machine I've found that making a "/" (root) partition and a swap partition work just fine. It's what Red Hat 7.3 does by default (with the small addition of creating /boot on it's own partition but other then that, RH i guess recommends it.

Mandrake makes the /home directory it's own partition which is smart so it's up to you.

The bare requirements are '/' and swap and your set. the rest is personal preference. Atleast from what I've discovered and of course how the machine is being used. Slicing it all up into detailed partitions = more security capabilities n more but for home and for being new to GNU/Linux, stick with the basics

Hope that helps