Let's review the purpose of partions. A hard disk may be partitioned
(divided logically) into no more than four partitions. Of these may be
an extended partition which can itself be divided into up to four
partitions. You may get the drift of how this can lead to a large number
of partitions. But I digress.

There can be several reasons for creating more than one partition.
1. An operating system may not be able to recognize a very large hard
drive and dividing it into smaller chunks may be the only solution.
2. It may be convenient to separate information so that it is stored on
separate drive letters rather than one large hard disk.
3. For purposes of defragmentation, you may want to put programs (that
don't change very often) on a logical drive separate from data that
changes a lot. Also the swap file might be good to place this way on a
separate partition.
4. You want to install a completely different OS such as Linux on the
same drive. Linux would require a separate partition.

Note that dividing a single drive into several logical drives will not
give you improved performance. It is primarily for convenience. Placing
the system files, program files, and swap file on separate physical
drives may result in better performance - but note that you would need
three disk drives to do so, not just three partitions.

A word of caution. If you decide to install Linux, be sure to re-install
XP after you do Linux. Each of these OSs makes changes to the boot
record on the disk. XP does not like to share!

Hope this helps and does not confuse you.

Peter
------------------
The NoSpin Group
[log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
I would like to save about 5 GB for LINUX and eventually learn how to
dual
boot and how to use LINUX.   Does LINUX need to be in a separate
partition
or can it be in a logical drive in the extended partition?

Bob Warasila

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