Yes, Grub will not work in your circumstance. But if you put your /boot on the first harddrive, it will work. (That is why you need to shrink your Windows partitions and do this).

ext3 is a file system type, used by Linux, just like NTFS for Windows. Same with ReiserFS, XFS and JFS (I recommend you stick with ReiserFS or ext3 for your main partitions and ext2 for your /boot). You will have the option when using partition magic/qtparted to make ext3 and ext2 partitions (not reiser for partition magic though) or you can just make empty partitions and then format them while installing linux.

MEPIS is a good choice, it is easy to install to the harddrive. I'm not sure if it will give you the option to make a /boot partition though, I think I remember it didn't. Could someone elaborate on this more?

SUSE and Red Hat (Fedora or RHEL/CentOS) are good choices too.

Hi,

Where would i get a free partitioning program from? Sorry if i sound cheap but thats my whole reason for wanting to do Linux :P its FREE

There will be other reasons you will like Linux. I like the fact I can download or even buy a copy and stick it on all of my families PCs. No license checks, etc. I shouldn't have to buy a new copy of Nero to burn a single DVD on my other computer because the DVD burner on my old one crapped out. I also like having no registry. Text files are much cleaner to work with, and more easily understandable. Anyways, enough ranting.

The Knoppix Live Linux CD includes a program called qtparted, which is available in KDE's menus. It is a partition magic clone. It is better than partition magic in some ways and worse in others.

Better

Supports Reiser and I believe XFS and JFS.

No cost.

Worse

Cannot move a partition unless it doesn't overlap AT ALL with the old placement.

Not quite as reliable (READ : Make sure you have run scandisk and disk defrag on ALL Windows partitions before using. If you do that, you shouldn't have any problems.)

EDIT : Lol, we may as well use IM. We are firing off responses at each other like every 10 minutes

2nd EDIT : About Linux being free, sometimes it is best to purchase a distro. For instance, SUSE has two 2 inch thick manuals that ship with it. It is a free download, but buying it gives you support from Novell and those huge manuals that walk you through everything.
One manual is a beginner's guide (you would like this one) and the other is a Admin guide (if you stick with Linux for a few months, you will really like this one). This may have changed though, if you do decide to go this route check Novell's website.

Mepis has the KDE GUI (that sound right? lol) so, would i have that program with Mepis?

Thanks for all this help guys. Its over-whelming in a good way

I am posting this end to my last response since you probably didn't read it since you posted before I could edit it.

2nd EDIT : About Linux being free, sometimes it is best to purchase a distro. For instance, SUSE has two 2 inch thick manuals that ship with it. It is a free download, but buying it gives you support from Novell and those huge manuals that walk you through everything.
One manual is a beginner's guide (you would like this one) and the other is a Admin guide (if you stick with Linux for a few months, you will really like this one). This may have changed though, if you do decide to go this route check Novell's website.

Anyways, I think it actually does have it during the install process, although again, I'm not entirely sure. Run the install process quickly and just see if it loads qtparted, if not then download Knoppix.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

The new HD is formating now (boy, did i have a hard time getting WinXP to reconise it )
and i hope to have Mepis running shortly

Just hope i can figure out the Partition information you guys provided me.

Thanks.