Linux+Partition Magic 7.0 Questions

[CyrusTheVirus]

I am going to install Linux Mandrake 7.1 on my system and multi boot that with Windows ME and Windows 2000. Im using Partition magic pro 7.0 to format one of my hard drives. I have 2 physical hard drives, both are 30gig a peice, one of the 30gig is partitioned into a 10gig and 20gig. I planned on installing linux on the 10gig partition. Windows ME is already on the 30gig HDD and I plan on install Windows 2000 on the 20gig partition.

I also have Bootmagic 7.0, I'm hoping to use this to solve all of my multibooting problems I'm going to have. I know Windows doesn't like to play fair with other different OS's .

A few questions:
-Is the partition that I need to install linux called linux ext2?
-How many linux swap partitions do I need? I heard somewhere that it depends on how much RAM I have and to only make each of the swap partitions at most 128mb in size. I have 512mb of RAM, does this mean I make 4 swap partitions 128mb a peice?

Note: I am an extreme newbie when it comes to Linux I have never installed the OS before, I kind of looked at it while my Dad installed it on some computer, but thats the extent of my knolege on it.

[paulh]

First of all, why not install the latest version of Mandrake...??
Mandrake 9 (I think, not a Mandrake user myself)

Questions:
1. Yes. Also, you can format them as ext3, or resierFS
ext2 should be fine for you

2. You only need one Swap partition
Ideally, it should be twice the size of your RAM
(So the installation documentation that comes with Red hat says)
I have 256MB RAM, and only a 128MB swap partition, gkrellm (monitoring software) shows that it is 0% used?! I have no idea whats going on with that
Maybe someone else knows something

http://www.tldp.org/
Try this site, it has a lot of information for new linux users, installation procedures, partition info, etc etc

Good luck

[majorwoo]

sometimes you really are not using your swap partition, if it all fits in RAM you dont need to use it...

Its also possible the monitoring software doesn't monitor so well



As for the original question:
You can boot just fine with the setup you are describing, I don't know about Boot Magic, but you should make at least three partitions for linx
/boot of type ext2 or ext3 (i prefer 3, it recovers faster after a crash) size 100MB
swap partition, of type swap size 2x RAM (as panth said)
/ of ext2 or 3 again (whatever is left that you want for linux)

Some people recommend more, I don't get involved in that debate to much - but those three are pretty much minimum (you dont NEED a boot, but it is highly advised)

Booting shouldnt be as bad as you think, install windows then linux - grub can boot them all, or you can use your bootmagic, ive just never used it. If you get stuck, come on back

[CyrusTheVirus]

Ok thanks alot guys for your input, it been extremely helpful. I do plan on coming back sometime because I know i'll get stuckl further down the road