double os

[dingdong-man]

i want to have a choice whether about to use linux or winxp. i'm using win xp currently and intending to install the linux...

i use partition magic 8.0 to divide my hard drive(i use laptop), and now i got confused in doing this....

my file system now is FAT32, but in the partition magic said it's recommended to be NTFS for the new partition. is that ok for one hard drive to have more than one file system?

and how's the best arrangement for the 2 os and other data storage partitions in the harddrive? becoz i've heard that if 2 OSs can be used in one machine, it'd be better to set both the os partitions in the front..... so
C:\ = windowsXP
D:\ = Linux
E:\ = data....

any comment or suggestion?

 

[nitram]

Using FAT32 for your WinXP partition is fine, you just lose out on features like encryption, file level security etc, which is enjoyed when using NTFS.

The drive which you are planning to split up can have more than one FS, once partitioned think of the one drive as however many seperate drives. Also take in to consideration that Linux will need 3 partitions really - /boot /root /swap. These partitions will not have drive letters as Windows uses 'C:', the drives are addressed via there device name like hda1, hda2...

The data partition which you plan to create should be fomatted using FAT, the reason being that both WinXP and Linux will be able to read and write to the partition.

 

[dingdong-man]

how if i put FAT 32 for the data partition? because now my hard drive only divided into 2 -- C for windows and D for data... i want to divide this C:\ into two with the same size each other, and i'll put linux there... so the drive d for data will become drive E, isn't it?

both the C & D now is Fat32

about the 3 partition needed by linux.... does it mean that i've to make 3 partition in my hard drive for linux?
make it clear please....

Thnx for help.....