[H-GEN] Linux & NTFS

[Andrew Pullin]

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Hi All,
    I have just picked up a new Toshiba TE2100 Laptop and I
want to set up Linux on it dual boot. Now normally this
would be no problem, but it came with XP Pro preinstalled
and an NTFS file system. I have had no previous experience
with either XP or NTFS and I was just wondering if there was
any tips or tricks I should know before I go about
repartitioning the HDD. I was planning on just using fips to
partition the drive (I have since been told I will need to
use Partition Magic), but after defragging and optimising,
as
far as I can tell, there is a big chunk of "immoveable data"
in the middle of the partition (well actually about 1/5 of
the way up the partition). This seems a bit strange to me,
but may just be a quirk of XP. Also is there any problems
with using Lilo or Grub, or will I need a boot disk?

    Finally, any suggestions on how I should partition the
drive? It is a 40 G drive (which works out to be about
38Gb). I am planning on having 2 XP partitions (ie a C: and
D: drive) that will be about 18-20 Gb total, and I want a
main Linux partition that will end up about 10-12 Gb and a
swap partition of 512 Mb (I have 512Mb RAM installed). This
leaves about 5 Gb for another Linux Partition that I want to
play with Linux From Scratch (and Beyond Linux From Scratch)
in and another swap partition. Two questions that come to
mind - Is this a realistic amount to set aside for LFS and
BLFS? and do I still need 512Mb swap partitions? The reason
I ask is that 512MB of Swap is an awful lot. If you use the
rule of thumb of double the RAM as the Swap that is/was
common with smaller RAM sizes, this makes what I would
consider HUGE swaps. Any comments and suggestions would be
mostly welcome.

    I will be attending the meeting this Saturday if someone
could give me a hand to set it up. I will be there about
5-6pm as I have to start work at 11pm and have to sleep
beforehand. If you can help out, I will also apparently need
a copy of Partition Magic to use so if you could obtain a
copy to use that would also be appreciated. Finally, if
anyone has a copy of Suse 8.1 Professional they could bring
to the meeting, that would also help. Thanks in advance.
    Cheers!
        Andrew.



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