I think this reclamation is what is considered a little risky.

What I've heard suggests that what you've heard here is probably correct.

I think that backing up everything is an excellent idea (if I did it more often I'd've had less problems). My setup has a / partition, a /home partition and a swap partition... I don't think that the others are really necessary. (The only reason that I have a seperate /home is to make reinstalling over my / directory easier should I ever decide to change distros... it was useful when I did).

Have you consider creating another partition which you could access from either OS - and thus share data? If so, then leave yourself enough space for this partition and format it with FAT. You can then read/write from either side.

Of course you could always configure your kernel to write to NTFS, but I don't like doing that myself. You could also use Windows tools to read/write to the ext2/ext3 partitions (explore2fs, Ext2 IFS, etc.), but native support is best, IMHO.

and yes, gparted has never let me down.

This may be stating the obvious, but have you ran the Distro ISO on your optical drive to check out the distro is what you want to install ?

Thanks Eric,

You responded so quickly, I'm slow with my reply.

I'm going to begin the download today. I'll let you guys know how it's going.

I'm sure you'll be able to hear the muffled screams.

I don't work on cars for the same reasons...a poverty of patience and I hate to get my hands greasy.

Thanks,
b.line

I would recommend that you do use a separate partition for /var. If you keep the var directory in the / partition and your apps generate a lot of log files this could potentially run your / partition out of space and crash the OS. By having a separate partition for /var helps keep your / partition from running out of space.

I would agree with Zillion on the LVM approach, however I would add the /var as a separate Logical Volume

(ext3 or 4) /boot = 200MB
LVM VG = 35GB

( LVM LV ext3 or 4) / = 5GB
( LVM LV ext3 or 4) /var = 5GB
( LVM LV ext3 or 4) /home =20GB

Remaining 5GB in VG can be used to extend any of the LV's later

swap = twice size of memory up to 1 or 2GB

As long as you have what you need for the XP partition, I do not see any reason why you could not run gparted (ie. gparted live cd) to shrink your XP partition size.

Thanks Pritish,

I'm sure your instructions would be enough for most but I want to make sure I understand.

20mb -----> for a boot volume (ext3 I presume)

with the remainder on an LVM partition (that I can change, on the fly, as necessary for root and home.

I thought the "/" (root) directory had to contain the boot records.
I also thought I needed to designate swap volume.

I will read the link you provided this afternoon.

Thanks for your suggestions and link.

b.line