Partitions for Linux

[NicoQwertyu]

I'd like to dual-boot Win ME () and Linux, but I don't know how I can set up the partitions for it.

Apparently, a root and swap partition are required, and I'd also like to have /usr and /home.  But that's four partitions not including what's being used for Windows, and can't I only have four partitions total?  How can I set this up w/o having to buy a second harddrive?


[Edit]
- I've already got 20 gigs of free space set aside for Linux, and two CD's with slackware install stuff.

- I found linux drivers for my ethernet card, but how would I get them... you know...

[quasi-modo]

I thought I heard somewhere that slackware is a pain in the butt to dual boot with windows. Right now I am dual booting mandrake and windows. I have a small swap partition and my root linux partition on the spare space of my big sata drive and the rest of that drive (the other 120gb of it) is windows. My two ide drives are also windows. Why exactly do you want the two extra linux partitions?

[iago]

I'm dual booting Slackware/Windows, and have set it up to do that on many different computers (at home, at work, for friends, etc.).  It's not too difficult.

I would recommend:
1gb for Swap
3gb for /
As much as you think you need for /home (that's where your documents and stuff goes) (3gb maybe?)
Everything else for /usr/local.

If you need any help or advice, post here, or email me ([email protected]) works well during the day or evening, or IM me (under my name <--) works well in the evening.

The reason you want more than one partition, let me tell you a story:
On my server, I have a partition for /usr/local, and another for /home.  One day I was a moron and issues a recursive command from the root folder which totally pooched up my installation.  I stuck in the slackware disks, blew out my / partition, and reinstalled it off the cd (total time: 30 minutes).  My documents and such were still there (in /home/iago), and all the software and settings I had were still there (in /usr/local).  I lost _nothing_, and it took me a half hour to get it running again.  THAT'S why you should have second partitions.

[NicoQwertyu]

But can't I only have a total of 4 partitions on 1 drive?  What I want to do, and what you've said is smart to do, requires 4 partitions plus the 1 I'm using for Windows.

[Edit]
About the partitions:
- Do the linux installation cd's cover creating the partitions, or should I use PartitionMagic to create them beforehand?

[iago]

You can have something like 4 primary and 8 secondary.

[mynameistmp]

I'd look at the FreeBSD manual for a good introduction to modern unix partitioning (and popular terminology). Particularly this section:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-steps.html

The following is a guide to laying out a Linux filesystem and the purpose behind the heirarchy. There may be more to it than you think, and it's paramount to maintaining a system.

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy/html/index.html