How do i? : partition for Linux on my laptop

[thespeakerbox]

I plan on running vista or xp while i begin to play with linux on my laptop.

How do you get to that point where you can select which OS to load? After I install windows, can i just pop in a linux cd and it will partition part of the drive? Do i have partition before i install any OS's? How much space would you partition for each distro with say an 80gb HDD.

Any ideas?

 

[Goosemaster]

just setup vista and create a partition of your choice size. You can always resize it later

As for Linux, just pop in a cd later and let it use the free space. It will do the appropriate partitioning for you

 

[Karot]

You can set Vista to use all of the space, and Linux will readjust accordingly if you decide to install it later. Most of the newer distrobutions should automatically recognize NTFS and be able to resize it. If not, just do what Goose said and tell vista to reside on it's own partition. Right now, I'm using 50GB for Windows and 30 GB for BSD on my 80GB hard drive, just because I play a lot of games and those take up tons of space.

 

[wetcat007]

Leave some empty space idealy. If you have partition magic you can adjust partition sizes real easily. Most distributions will set you up with grub bootloader to choose between the two at boot automatically.