Linux and use of hard drive capacity

I am considering the best method to utilitize my existing hard drive capacity(80 GB on 2 40 GB drives) to run a dual-boot linux/win2000 system. My current plan consists of leaving my current win2000 install on one harddrive and installing linux(specifically Mandrak 8.0 distro) on the other drive.

I think this would be the best method because if I am correct Linux requires(or at least works more smoothly with) the NTSF file standard while my current hard drive is set as FAT32.

Am I correct my assessment or should I just partition a portion of the FAT32 drive for Linux and use the additional drive for storage capacity?


<font color=blue>The only thing to fear is fear itself, well that and three month old leftover</font color=blue>

i'm new at linux but I'm pretty sure it WON'T read NTFS.
let Mandrake partition it and format it on its own.
i am trying to dual boot with a single HD with 3 partitions.
1 XP, 1 w2k, and about 5Mg unformatted for linux.
i've tried this before but the linux lilo loader always corrupts the nt loader or the master boot record. mandrake lilo will allow you to boot to other OS's but it always failed for me when i tried to use the windows option.
the linux os worked fine except i couldn't get the cable modem to work. good luck

NTFS support is there, but NTFS write support is still listed as "DANGEROUS." Read support has been working fine for me so far--I just leave NTFS write support completely disabled in the kernel.

FAT16 and FAT32 read/write support is as safe as anything can be.

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."