Installing on 2 Hard Drives / Multi Boot with Windows XP

[xAzraelx]

If you want to do things the "safe" way, then I would back up the data from the FAT32 drive, then repartition that drive in the SuSE installer. Create a swap partition (similar to a pagefile in Windows) about 1.5-2x the size of the amount of memory in the system and a / directory that gives you enough room to play around. Then you can create a FAT32 partition using the rest of the space on the drive and move your data back to that partition after the install has finished. No fuss, no muss

I really wish I would have gotten to know this stuff sooner . So what you are saying is, this is what I do.
Buy a DVD Burner (which I need to do anyway)
Backup the FAT32 Drive
After downloading the SuSe 9.3, burn the cds and run the installer.
It will choose the FAT32 Drive automatically?
create a swap partition the drive of about 900 mbs (512 ram) (i suppose its an option in the linux setup)
then create an actual partition (another option in the setup?) to move my storage stuff back to

is that what you are saying Please correct me if any part is wrong, I don't want to screw this up thanks

Will

edit: another question...is SuSe linux a good linux OS to start with? I am not a complete newbie to computers and usage...but to linux I am...is SuSe a good place to start?

[budman7]

If you want to do things the "safe" way, then I would back up the data from the FAT32 drive, then repartition that drive in the SuSE installer. Create a swap partition (similar to a pagefile in Windows) about 1.5-2x the size of the amount of memory in the system and a / directory that gives you enough room to play around. Then you can create a FAT32 partition using the rest of the space on the drive and move your data back to that partition after the install has finished. No fuss, no muss

I really wish I would have gotten to know this stuff sooner . So what you are saying is, this is what I do.
Buy a DVD Burner (which I need to do anyway)
Backup the FAT32 Drive
After downloading the SuSe 9.3, burn the cds and run the installer.
It will choose the FAT32 Drive automatically?
create a swap partition the drive of about 900 mbs (512 ram) (i suppose its an option in the linux setup)
then create an actual partition (another option in the setup?) to move my storage stuff back to

is that what you are saying Please correct me if any part is wrong, I don't want to screw this up thanks

Will

edit: another question...is SuSe linux a good linux OS to start with? I am not a complete newbie to computers and usage...but to linux I am...is SuSe a good place to start?

Suse is a very good distro for newbies to start with.
and the Suse installer will take care of a lot of the stuff like partitioning and hardware setup.
Just look at the automatic proposal that Suse gives and make sure that it is what you want.
If you don't like any part of it, just click on it and change it.