HDD Partitioning

[emerset]

If you plan to do so I'd choose the pragmatic way:
this means for Linux solo.

Partition File System Size

/dev/sda1 Linux-Partition 15GiB ext3 boot (primary)
/dev/sda2 extended Partition 142GiB (primary)

/dev/sda5,sda6,.. Data-Partitions and/or further Linux-Partitions (logical)

/dev/sda3 linux-swap 1-2 GiB (primary)

or multiboot with windows
Partition File System Size

/dev/sda1 Windows-Partition 25GiB ntfs boot (primary)
/dev/sda2 extended Partition 142GiB (primary)

/dev/sda5 Data-Partition ntfs (so Windows and Linuxhave access) (logical)
/dev/sda6 first Linux-Partition 15GiB ext3 (logical)
/dev/sda7, sda8,.. Data-Partitions and/or further Linux-Partitions (logical)

/dev/sda3 linux-swap 1-2 GiB (primary)

---------------------------------
PS: as you said you use "fenix" - are you brasilian?
Here it isn't really known (nothing at distroWatch and it seems portuguese only (nothing multilingual)

Thank you Im looking into it, I wont be installing windows, itll be pure linux as Im being weaned.
Im surprized you even know the distro exists, I live in Brazil at the moment and got the laptop here. I'm sure you can see why I detest the distrobution: it's such a harpy thing, and I have a gut feeling its not powerful. As Im studying PHP/SQL Im considering Debian

[emerset]

reiserfs is good filesystem but to save data in /dev/sda4, you have to mount it and allow regular users to access it.

Create a mount_point ( folder ) for /dev/sda4.

sudo mkdir /media/data

Add this code in /etc/fstab file :

/dev/sda4    /media/data    reiserfs     defaults    0   0

Save file and reboot machine.
Now open Terminal and execute this

id

Note down user and group ids. Execute this

sudo chown -R  user_id:group_id /media/data

Thats all. Your /dev/sda4 partition will be mounted at /media/data and you will have full permission to read/write in there.

In case you face any problem, post the contents of /etc/fstab file and output of id command here.

I did everything to a T and it seemed to work beautifully. I even thought Id understood it. Then I checked the properties of the blasted thing and it didnt work out. heres the contents of my files:
# /etc/fstab
/etc/fstab: line 4: proc: command not found
/etc/fstab: line 5: /dev/hdc2: Permission denied
/etc/fstab: line 6: /dev/hdc1: Permission denied
/etc/fstab: line 7: /dev/scd0: No such file or directory
/etc/fstab: line 8: /dev/sda4: No such file or directory
# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root)
--------------------------------as root administrator above
or as regular user:------------------------------------------------
$ id
uid=1000(fenix) gid=1000(fenix) groups=4(adm),20(dialout),24(cdrom),25(floppy),29( audio),30(dip),44(video),46(plugdev),104(scanner), 108(lpadmin),110(admin),115(netdev),117(powerdev), 122(vboxusers),1000(fenix)

[computerophil]

Thank you Im looking into it, I wont be installing windows, itll be pure linux as Im being weaned.
Im surprized you even know the distro exists, I live in Brazil at the moment and got the laptop here. I'm sure you can see why I detest the distrobution: it's such a harpy thing, and I have a gut feeling its not powerful. As Im studying PHP/SQL Im considering Debian

You say you live in Brazil at the moment - so i think you aren't Brazilian -
So if you try to find a distro suiting to you - lets start:

which language should it have?
Do you have a prefered GUI or don't you know yet?
What for do you plan to use your computer mainly?
Data of Computer (CPU-rate, RAM, architecture)

This are the most important questions for finding the right distro.

[emerset]

You say you live in Brazil at the moment - so i think you aren't Brazilian -
So if you try to find a distro suiting to you - lets start:

which language should it have?
Do you have a prefered GUI or don't you know yet?
What for do you plan to use your computer mainly?
Data of Computer (CPU-rate, RAM, architecture)

This are the most important questions for finding the right distro.

English, Im Canadian, I have no qualms about GUI; I plan to both learn extensive web programming/database, and learn to control linux powerfully. Im way more into stability over whats latest.

#cpuinfo
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16GHz
stepping : 13
cpu MHz : 1000.000


4 GB RAM
i686

I heard that the swap partition should be the size of the RAM or double it or something. Im studying more about it though.
to be honest, I took one of those funky tests of "What distro is best for you", and thats when I started thinking I was more into stability.

[computerophil]

English, Im Canadian, I have no qualms about GUI; I plan to both learn extensive web programming/database, and learn to control linux powerfully. Im way more into stability over whats latest.

#cpuinfo
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16GHz
stepping : 13
cpu MHz : 1000.000


4 GB RAM
i686

I heard that the swap partition should be the size of the RAM or double it or something. Im studying more about it though.
to be honest, I took one of those funky tests of "What distro is best for you", and thats when I started thinking I was more into stability.

Traditionally it is said Swap should be 2x RAM.
Nowadays you have often that much RAM inside that this amount of swap is never used in normal usage.

A Distro in english with an excellent hardwaredetection suitable also for fix installation:
I think you should try via LiveCDs:

OpenMamba KDE (beginnerfriendly)
Mandriva Gnome or KDE (beginnerfriendly)
Sabayon Gnome or KDE (it is extreemly big => luxury variant of Linux with everything and even more inside)
Knoppix LXDE (superb distro but sometimes difficulties during installation process)
SAM XFCE ( a relative light allrounder)
Puppy JWM (small distribution nevertheless can do nearly everything)

those use also proprietary software and are very beginner friendly