Here is my current drive configuration, all on one physical disk:
C: 30 GB, System drive
D: 40 GB, MP3s, videos
E: 20 GB, Documents, misc
F: DVD drive
G: CD-RW

I think I can get away with moving the contents of my E: drive onto the D: drive, and then I want to use the current E: partition as a Linux one. Is this something I can do fairly easily in the setup for SuSE?

I know I should repartition the E: drive to be FAT32 (all are currently NTFS). I assume I can use PartitionMagic to do all that. But then when I start up the installer for SuSE, can I just say, alright, install Linux in this FAT32 partition, aka the old E: drive?

I'm pretty new to Linux. And I figure, with a 100 GB hard drive, there's no reason to buy another one just for Linux.

Thanks.

You don't need to do anything but clear out E. E=/dev/hda3

Suse will do the rest.

Hi Achtunger

No - Linux wont install correctly on a FAT32 partition - you need a Linux filesystem lke Reisfer FS or Ext2, ext3 etc.

I personally would just back up your E:drive then delete the e partition completely.

You would then have a c and d drive on the first two-thirds of your drive and some completely free space at the end of your drive for SUSE.

Then when installing SUSE let it install into the existing free space

Ok, I think I got it. Just a couple more questions.

First, assuming I make my current E: drive into the Linux partition, will I still be able to select which OS to boot into at startup? Because I thought that some BIOSes couldn't boot into an OS that wasn't at the front of a physical drive.

Also, will Linux be able to read anything from an NTFS file system? I heard there are drivers for Linux to read NTFS, but its still mostly in beta. I'd just like to be able to make a file in XP and read it in Linux, or vice versa. It's not the biggest thing, but it would be nice.

Yes - just install LILO to the MBR.

It doesnt matter where the OS is - what matters is that the BIOS can get to a bootloader - so the bootloader has to be in a boot sector. Its the bootloader that boots the OS - not the BIOS

The order is

BIOS

Bootloader in a "BIOS recognised" boot sector

OS

All Linux distributions based on the 2.4.xx kernel have a Linux NTFS driver built in - and hence have Read support - You'll be able to Read NTFS fine from SUSE 8.2 etc

Sorry, but how would I do that? I'm not sure how to change the Master Boot Record.

The installation process should offer
you a few choices as to where it
will place lilo...

As for the read/write ... if you need
the ability to write to a file from both
systems, use a FAT partition (a floppy,
a zip-disk) ...

Cheers,
Tink

When you install SUSE- choose to install LILO to the MBR - the MBR is just the boot sector on the 1st hard drive.

Ok, cool, thanks for the help.

Oh and just one more thing, is the software that comes with SuSE pretty good? I mean, can I perform most tasks with it that I would need to on an every day basis. I'm planning to use the free download version.

SUSE 8.2 is fine for everyday tasks and lots more - if youve got time, get hold of Mandrake 9.1 aswell - enjoy trying them both.

There's many distributions out there to try - I just buy them cheaply form online sellers for next to nothing - try the link in my sig. for distrowatch - there's loads of info on the different distributions.

Hmm, I was reading the review of SuSE 8.0 at distrowatch, and I'm kind of worried by this statement:

SuSE is sometimes criticised by the media and the Linux community for four different reasons. The first one is a thorny issue of not providing freely downloadable ISO images of their products. The second is the marketing ploy of shipping two editions of boxed sets, of which the cheaper Personal edition lacks so many vital applications that it is impossible to recommend it -- unless you are buying it for the grandma.

Does that mean the downloaded version will also lack lots of "vital applications"? I know this is a review of 8.0, and I got 8.2, but still kind of bothers me.