Hello-

I want to install Red Hat 8.0 but still keep my Windows XP. I have read almost every manual but still dont get it.

I used Partition Magic to create the following drive:
(This is before installing the Red Hat CD)

Drive Letter: F
File System: NTFS
Free Space: 19.4GB

My local disk(C) space now since I created that new partition drive is 33.2GB NTFS.

Now, when installing red hat, what should I do when the partitioning part of the wizard comes up? should I let it just automatically partition my drives for free space?

However, there is an option to choose in partition magic to "To install New OS".

Please I need help. This is very very difficult and Im getting a headache.

So, whats the easiest way to install Red Hat 8.0 to dual boot with XP???

The easiest method is to leave free space and let the installer automatically paritition. Free space is unallocated or unpartitioned. So if you wanted to install RH to the F drive then delete it.

RH will create three partitions by default. / (root), /boot and swap.

Well, at least you got the free space.

First. Redhat should automatically set up the dual boot as long as you dont screw it up.

Second. WTH you installing redhat 8 for? Redhat's dropping off the Redhat distro. There is no more redhat. No more updates are gonna come out. redhat 9 is it, the end of the line and thats final.

So either get Fedora if you need to stay with redhat. Or go with a better distro. Suse, Gentoo, or Mandrake, in that order

Thanks for being honest.

Ok, so I wont get RH. I will go for mandrake if its good and which version do you guys recommend?

To be honest with you, I need the most stable and secure Linux-Based OS for the newbie like me.

If I decide to install Mandrake or FreeBSD or whatever, should I let them automatically partition the free space that I have during the install process?

You should be fine in letting the installer automatically partition the drive for you. Once you have become more familiar with working in linux you may well determine that you would like your future installation to be configured with specific partitioning, but for now such concerns should be set aside.

Most likely yes you should let the auto-partition take over as long as it doesnt try to steal the windows drive space.