I am still a newb to a lot of the Linux installation processes so here is my story. I have installed SuSE linux on an old 486 so that was easy. but now on my Presario 5108US, i'm scared to even mess around with the partitioning and so forth. my goal is to get Mandrake 8.1 on it but i don't even know if t is possible. has anyone installed Mandrake on a Compaq with a built in S3 ProSavage video adapter?

I have Partition magic 7 and i was thinking that these were the steps to make a successful partition for Linux while running a windows system.
1-defrag and scandisc
2-make a boot disc
3-back up data
4-create primary EXT and swap partitions on top of the windows partition.

---Or i could use the built in partitioner with mandrake but i need some of your opinions on these things----


i just dont know the worst case scenario. If this partitioning thing goes through, what would i do if Mandrake doesn't work on my comp? or if i can't access windows again because the partitioning erased some critical files?

any help would be great!