35G is a good size for a non-experimental, everyday-use Linux install.

Gparted is the way to go.

However, I would change the partition set up just a smidgen...

10G - /(root) --> formatted as ext3
*no separate /var partition needed*
23G - /home --> formatted as ext3
2G - /swap --> formatted as Linux swap

There will be other opinions about this, I'm sure. Just sort of average them out. The above formatting scheme is what I would use (and have used many times). It's simple and it works.

Luck!

~Eric

You might even want to consider using Logical Volumes (LVM) as it will make your life easier when it comes to resizing your partitions . You can do it on the fly without unmounting the filesysystem and its simple too . So what I would suggest is

/boot ----> 200MB

/ -----> on LVM ( You can start with 5 GB and later increase )

/home ------> on LVM ( You can start with 10G )

There are a lot of other great things you can do with LVM . For more information check :

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/

but for me, it is the best option not to format your hdd just to install linux you can use Virtual Machine in windows xp and run your linux to it, then when you decide to change your OS from windows to great linux, it is time to remove you partition and install a fresh copy of linux.

you can also use pendrivelinux, pendrivelinux is a flash drive base linux you can install it to your 1gb or up flash drive and run your computer without changing anything in your harddisk.

hope it helps

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