First off, is there any swap space on that 20 gig Linux section? Basically a minimum of two partitions is good, one for the Linux files ( root or / ) and one for swapping. The swap partition is like a swap file in Windows, except it's usually kept on a seperate partition for effeciency reasons. Sometimes to boot up Linux you may need a /boot as well - there are some problems with trying to boot an OS from above a certain cylinder number on a hard drive. Back in the old days they assumed it wouldnt be a problem because no one would have a hard drive that big. (Kinda like how everyone thought computers would never have to store years above 4 digits - hence the Y2K scare.) I *think* this isn't a problem with Red Hats latest versions as they use grub. I don't use Red Hat or grub so do any peeps who do wanna comment? If you do need a /boot it will only need to be 10-15 meg. Although with Red Hat 8+ the minimum partition size is about 80 meg. :rolleyes:
Anyway the partitions might be laid out like this:
|----------|---------|-|
Where the first is windows, the second is Linux root and the third is the swap partition. The swap partition will not need to be too big, 200-400 meg should be plenty enough.
If you *do* need a /boot it might be more like this:
|-|--------|---------|-|
Where the first is a tiny /boot, the second is Windows, the third is Linux root and the fourth is swap. There are more complicated ways to do it but as your laptop probably wont be being a massive server anytime soon just smack anyone who suggests above 4 partitions.
When you install Red Hat it should give you the option of installing lilo or grub into the hard drives "boot sector" - these programs let you choose between booting Windows / Linux / Whatever other OS's you have installed. If your computer is just booting straight into Windows you probably didnt install Lilo or Grub.
