Size of partitions for Windows XP and Linux

[juicelooser]

I'm in the process of building my own PC, and I've decided to have both Windows XP and Redhat Linux on the system. I'm planning on using Linux as a server for my own purposes and Windows to support all of the software I already have.

I have an 80GB harddrive; how many partitions should I make, and how large should they each be?

Also, is there anything I should know about having the two systems on the same computer?

Thanks.

[LocoCoyote]

Get used to rebooting to change Os's.
I have found that win XP and RedHat coexsist well on a single computer. You have plenty of room for both OS's with that 80GB. My RedHat 9 complete took about 4GB (including swap space) You might want to leave some room for differnt Distros.

My advice is to sep up a swap file = to RAM x 2 and the rest as a ext3 partion (use diskdruid, it comes with RH)
Also I recommend partioning with fdsik, install windows, then install linux.
a bit chaotic, this answer, but I think I hit the points. Need anymore advice let me know..I got three OS's running on my notebook.

[juicelooser]

what do you mean by swap space?

this is my first time doing a dual-boot system and using linux, so I'm a little confused.

[kilgoretrout]

Install XP first or you can run into problems with having the linux boot loader overwritten by a susequent XP install. Linux can read but not write to NTFS partitions. It can read and write to Fat32 however. If you want to use NTFS, a lot of people that dual boot XP and linux set up a FAT32 data partition which both linux and XP can read and write to.

[juicelooser]

So, when I format the drive for the first time, it would be best to make 3 partitions: one for winXP, one for linux, and one to put all my files in? Would 10GB for each OS be fine? (I'm guessing that'd be more than enough, judging by LocoCoyote's post). I would then have 60GB for everything else.

I can do the partioning with plain old fdisk, right? (I'm pretty sure I read that in the Build Your Own PC tutorial)

Thanks for all of your help so far.

[kilgoretrout]

I'd just set up your two windows partitions(XP and Data/Fat32) and leave about 10 or 20GB uallocated at the end of the drive. Most modern linux installers have an option to install on unallocated space and the installer will handle setting up and formatting the linux partitions there. I dont know if fdisk can make NTFS partitions but it's been a long time since I used it. Certainly you could set up two FAT32 partitions and the XP installer can reformat one to NTFS.

[LocoCoyote]

All of this will work! I use fdisk. 10GB is plenty. The swap space is simply what we call virtual memory or paging file in the Windows world. A place to put things that don't fit into RAM. I recommend formating your WinXP with NTFS. You lose a lot of the security featureds if you don't. I have a seperate partion (Fat32) where I store files that I may want to open with either OS (ie my Word docs).