Hello, I managed at last to find linux that recognizes my hardware, and that is Mandriva 2006, I tested it and liked what I saw, and decided to start using it, I just have to re-install it completely cos I made just a test partition job and I have way too big partitions atm.

So my question is, how big should my partitions be ?

And should I make different partitions for /usr/local , /var/ftp , /opt ... etc

It is nice feature to be able to automatically partition ur hd

There is no right answer on that, many different variations depending on usage and reasoning.

For me, my pc being nothing more than a desktop entertainment unit I simply use 4 partitions. Three are linux specific. I have 6gigs for the root partition (of which only 3.7 are used with current set up), a gig for swap, and 25gigs for user home. My fourth partiton(backups) is actually a slave drive formatted fat 32 which is accessible from Linux and Windows..........yes I also have a windows partition since the one and only game I play FMS, has not been ported to linux. ReiserFS is my choice formatting simply because I have had problems with ext3 recovering journal after hard shut downs during power outages and so far ReiserFS has never failed me so far.

I give /home a separate partition incase the operating system itself gets boinked to the point of needing a reinstallation. That way I don't lose my stuff. It has been a few years since I have had something go so wrong that a reinstall was needed.

Yep agree, depends on what you want, if we just post what we have, then that will give you an idea.

I have :-

root - 6 gig
swap - 1 gig
home 48 gig (rest of the drive space)

Thanks guys, I just re-installed.

It looks like this:

xp partition for gaming.
Swap 1 gig
root 6 gig
home about 20 gig
and couple of partitions in Fat32 and ntfs format.

Now it is time to some linux

This is a good read if you are new to linux and have the time:
http://linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/