aw hell.
While we're on the subject...
The Windows Setup installer will allow you to partition and format the hard drive (aka, physical drive) - and it will let you choose which partition (aka, logical drive) you want Windows files installed.
You have to decide whether to format the drive (and any partitions) as NTFS or FAT32. WindowsXP installer will default to NTFS format and system files will reside on drive C: You can format, add, and delete non-system partitions from within Windows later on (at least on XP Pro).
Non-NT versions of Windows cannot read or write an NTFS formatted drive. Few non-Windows operating systems can read&write to NTFS. That's the only downside of NTFS, in my opinion. If you want to be able to password-protect files and folders you have to use NTFS.
FAT32 offers almost universal read&write support. It doesn't offer much in the way of security or data integrity - but it's still very good and very useful. I retain at least one FAT32 partition in order to "exchange" files between 2 operating systems in a dual boot configuration. If the other OS can't read&write NTFS, then I simply move the data to the FAT32 partition beforehand. Leave a partition of maybe 4GB or so - and format it as FAT32, just in case - if you're gonna be using NTFS or other filesystem formats. You can add another hard drive later, when you add another OS. In place of a boot manager you can change the boot order in BIOS and boot from whichever hard drive (OS) you want.
You can get by with only 5GB for your Windows system partition if you don't install too many applications on that partition. Personally, I use a 40GB Windows partition and just let it ride. Seems to be enough room (Oddly, some application installers won't even work without a C: drive being available). I just keep all my audio/video files on their own partition.
While we're on the subject...
The Windows Setup installer will allow you to partition and format the hard drive (aka, physical drive) - and it will let you choose which partition (aka, logical drive) you want Windows files installed.
You have to decide whether to format the drive (and any partitions) as NTFS or FAT32. WindowsXP installer will default to NTFS format and system files will reside on drive C: You can format, add, and delete non-system partitions from within Windows later on (at least on XP Pro).
Non-NT versions of Windows cannot read or write an NTFS formatted drive. Few non-Windows operating systems can read&write to NTFS. That's the only downside of NTFS, in my opinion. If you want to be able to password-protect files and folders you have to use NTFS.
FAT32 offers almost universal read&write support. It doesn't offer much in the way of security or data integrity - but it's still very good and very useful. I retain at least one FAT32 partition in order to "exchange" files between 2 operating systems in a dual boot configuration. If the other OS can't read&write NTFS, then I simply move the data to the FAT32 partition beforehand. Leave a partition of maybe 4GB or so - and format it as FAT32, just in case - if you're gonna be using NTFS or other filesystem formats. You can add another hard drive later, when you add another OS. In place of a boot manager you can change the boot order in BIOS and boot from whichever hard drive (OS) you want.
You can get by with only 5GB for your Windows system partition if you don't install too many applications on that partition. Personally, I use a 40GB Windows partition and just let it ride. Seems to be enough room (Oddly, some application installers won't even work without a C: drive being available). I just keep all my audio/video files on their own partition.