swap file on sata?

[filter]

I'm just starting out with Linux and I'm not sure how to do this so maybe someone can help. I have win xp home on a WD sata drive and I'd like to install Suse 9.0 on a WD 80 g ide drive.
I know all about the dirty little tricks nt loader plays on your mbr so I was wondering if I can set this up without a swap drive to minimize the problems? Will Suse even recognise the sata drive xp is loaded on? Any guidance you can give me on this would be helpful. System specs below.


Asus a7n8x deluxe mobo
AMD xp 2500
Ati video card (yeah I know,another problem there)
LG dvd multi format burner
XP is loaded on a WD sata 250g
Lotsa fans

PS. I'm doing this in two days so a prompt response is appreciated.

[gwalters]

Suse should see your sata drive. If your installing on an ide drive w/o a swap (have >300megs mem) then why does it need to see your sata drive?

[filter]

Maybe I didn't understand the process. I was under the impression that you would always have a swap drive even if there are seperate hard drives. I would rather leave xp unaffected by Suse as I belive the bios will prompt me to select which drive I want to boot into anyway. So what you're telling me is that all the windows stuff stays on its' drive and the Suse on the other. And nt loader will peacefully coexist with lilo or grub?

[gwalters]

If you have adequate memory you dont have to have a swap. You can leave your sata drive w/ windows on it un-touched and install suse on your ide drive. there is a way to setup lilo/grub to be your bootloader then choose between linux and windows :P

[filter]

Excellent. I hoped there would be a way to do that. I'll investigate the lilo/grub angle. I have 512 megs of memory. That should be enough right?

[gwalters]

more than enough :P good luck