Seriously, you should just read the documentation that comes with any major Linux distribution.
If you download Red Hat or Mandrake, for example, each distribution's website will have excellent directions on how to setup your disk drives and install Linux onto it. Now, though, Red Hat's consumer release is called Fedora Core. Despite the name, it's still just as easy to install. Here is the link to that project.
Mandrake Linux , like I mentioned earlier, has good instructions as well. Both of these distributions have nice, point-n-click installers which essentially will hold your hand through installing Linux.
...And remember, there are always forums like these around to help you through it!
alc6379
Cookie... That's it
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redhat 9 will only take up maybe 1-2 gigs of space for a full install. if your second hd is completely clear and there is no partitions on it the when you pop in the cd and reboot the computer. (first make sure you bios is set to boot from the cdrom) and then the install will tell you what to do. redhat is very nOObie freindly so you shouldnt have any problems installing it. and it even will set up the partitions for you i believe all you have to do is accept them and they will be done the way redhat has said for them to be. and for a nOObie i would recommend either you try redhat9 which you have, mandrake, or suse they are the easiest to install. hope this helps :)
edit: no you will need more then 700 mb to get redhat up and running. if you do a full install which i recommend for you or when it askes in the redhat install chose the desktop install this will give you what you want. and it will take 1-2 gigs. :)
I wouldn't let RedHat do the auto partitioning. Last time I ran Anaconda (the Red Hat installer), it wanted to eraseeverything on my drive and use the entire space to install itself. I'd recommend using Disk Druid, which is included in the Red Hat installer. You can customize how much disk space you want your Red Hat installation to use.
But personally, I do like the recommendations of some of the other members here. Both Knoppix and Mepis Linux have LiveCD discs available for you to run, allowing you to try out a very good Linux system before actually installing it. As a matter of fact, I know that with Knoppix, you can even make a floppy disk that acts as a "persistent home folder", so you can keep your settings even after a reboot. In fact, Mandrake has just released an edition that includes a USB flash drive in the boxed set so you can save your files:
MandrakeMove: a portable Linux distro
alc6379
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Delete the "d" partition, and use the linux installer (of whichever flavor you choose) to create a SWAP partition and a EXT3 partition. (EXT3 or RiserFS or bla bla bla) ;-)
Tekmaven
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