Linux Installation Advice

[Peccavi]

I have P4 1.5 ghz, 256MB Ram and 20 GB harddisk partitionad as C:8gb with Windows XP pro on it and D:11 Gb with data on it. I want to install Redhat 9 on that computer as dual boot.
What should I do? I am asking about partitioning and disk space issues. Personal Desktop option would fit for now. What kind of problems may I encounter during installation?

Come on GX_1

[GX1_Man]

With a 20 gig drive and XP taking a LOT of space, that is a tall order.

I would load XP on a 13 gig C drive with the drive formatted as FAT32. Leave the rest of the space unpartitioned. When you load Linux it will create a partition for it and a swap partition to take up the remaining space. You will also automatically get a boot loader installedto choose your O/S at boot up.  

That's really cramping the space, but it would be workable. Linux can read and write to FAT32 with no problem (not so with NTFS), so the data could be accessed by either O/S. A separate XP partition/data partition has no real advantage.

What Linux are you thinking of?

[Peccavi]

RedHat9. With Personal Desktop option.
If I format my drive with ext2 or 3 etc... during Linux Installation it won't be accessible from Windows? And how boot loader works is it show up at the startup like when you have eg Win 98 and Win XP?

[GX1_Man]

Windows doesn't read Linux , but Linux reads FAT32. Use Ext3 or ReiserFS (I think Reiser was available on RH9)

Yes you will get a pretty boot manager to start Windows or Linux (in text or graphical mode).

[Peccavi]

Thanks GX. I 'll be back , as things go further...