knoppix ? Awesome, but can u solve me some doubts? [Noob]

[GbaDoctor]

dear members, dear staff

sorry for this post, i know that usually the best way to not bother iz to use the search function (lol) but im stuck with some doubts that needs to be solved by some ace knoppix masters here.

ok, the fact:

i have 2 hdds, both ide 80gb from maxtor. On the first one, i have a windows mce 2k5 os, installed and working proprely. The free space is around 56 gb. On the second hdd, i have only files n games installed for a total of 76 gb, with only 5 gb free. Ive tried knoppix , and after i tried the live cd with the functions to save on the usb pen (im startin to understand how to mount drives with the fstab thingie or using kde) it was a total shock goin back to windows. Now, ma questions:

I cant screw ma Windows Os, cos there r some sensible data on it, and since i cant make a partition on the other hdd due to his limited free space....

A) ..can i make a 30 gb partition, from the C: hdd (the main one with Windows mce) in order to leave it unused for linux?
If yes how?
Do i need to use a special program like partition magic or the builtin disk management of windows iz ok? (or maybe the knoppix installer have a partition program itself?)

or

After the creation of a partition (jus allocating 30gb from ma C , knoppix can format n configure it all in one shot and easily like mandrake do?

B) Do u suggest do back up all ma data on E: (the disc with only files) and make a partition from that, instead messin with C

C) When i create a partition, do i need to create two actually? One for the os and one for the swap or i can leave the unformatted space as it is since the knoppix installer does it automatically ?

ok i know that these three questions r alot similar (lol) but im a noob and i cant efford to lose ma sensible data. So i jus wanna know what are the dangers that i may encounter n specially, how the koppix installer works. Hope to have some feedback soon, i will continue to track down the whole board, but i didnt find anything deep about ma problems.

Thanx in advance to the guys that want to help me out, im kinda new and i want to enjoy Linux in his complete way, with software installing etc.

Cheers and keep up the wonderful work.

Dani

[firebyrd10]

A: Knoppix has qtparted which can safly resize a ntfs hd (I figure you have ntfs, fat works also though)
Just be sure to defrag first.

B: Because of the lack of space (knoppix only needs 3 gigs but more is better) and that it would be the same difficulty to resize the other I would go with A.

C: You need two partitions one for data, another for swap.
After resizing 30 gigs off of windows partition, I would creat a 30gig - 300Mb partition, then use the rest for a swap partition. Qtpartion will auto maticly format the partitions, you don't have to do it.

[GbaDoctor]

Thanx mr.firebyrd10, ur suggestions r highly appreciate, so i can finally start to use linux on ma pc. i will make a partition liku u said, one of 30 and one of 400mb so the installers will fit automatically in those.


any good suggestions r welcome since im discoverin it for the first time.


anyway thanx again.

dani