i just did a fresh install of windows and everything was working for a couple days, until i installed service pack 2(it gives you that stupid windows security center thing) now whenever i stat up, it hangs at the login screen. the only way i can make it start up is to boot into safe mode and do a restart from there, then it will boot into regular mode with no problem... i have no idea why this works it just does

i also am about to install linux(probably slackware) as soon as i make sure that all my hardware works with windows and i have been hearing that i should make separate partitions for my /home, /usr, and /var(if i should even have one). can somebody point me to a tutorial on how to install linux this way and how much space i should give each partition?