install questions, mutiple drives, moving files, the works..

[phantommaggot]

OK
so im finally gonna get a new hard drive.
and i want to do my H/W and make sure i get a proper install.
im gonna use my 160GB as the main OS drive and im gonna hold off about 60 GB for windows and use the rest for linux.
how exatly should i set up my partitions. id say ill use 1 gb for swap. and i want to have just a bit more than enough room on the other partitions. id hate to have a logical partition be too small for my updates, installs, and the what not.
mostly im looking for a good suggestion for logical partitions here.. also a suggestion on what format to use, i was thinking either EXT3 or XFS

anyways, im just looking for some good advice so im not loosing everything when i switch it up on distros and such.
i DO plan to use mint as my Main OS, only switching back to xp pro to play games and such..

i also have a 250GB drive, and im gonna be getting either a 500 or a 750 here shortly.
if im gonna be using linux as my main os, id obviously want linux to be able to access the things i have stored on these other drives..
so maybe format the 750 to like XFS or ext3 (which is better for storage of files that arent accessed much?) since im just gonna archive anime there .
then i could do a quick getto install on the 10gb linux partition i have now and move all my files from the 250 and 160 to the 750
then id have an empty 250 and a 160 to use for os and such

heres the other thing
i use azureus ALOT.
and last time i was using linux as my main os, i had downloaded some program that allowed windows to read and write to ext3
i made a torrent folder in a special section in my linux partition and had a special azureus folder so when i logged into windows and loaded up azureus it would still download/upload to and from the linux drive.
it was buggy but it worked...

would there be a better way to do this??
maybe make a 50 gb FAT partition on the 250 gb drive for just that use. but right now im downloading a 39GB folder .. isnt fat limited to 4gb folder size.. or is that just file size.. and what if im downloading a huge iso or something.. so ya.. im stuck lol.. then again if im just using windows for games, i dont really need to worry with much else do it.. so i could just JUST use windows for game.. and homework and the such..

anyways, just looking for suggestions
the azureus problem will be fixed within the next 6 months as im gonna finish the modded box ive been working on and throw it together just for media purposes. it will run strictly on linux. ^_^ and ill probably hook it up to a large LCD tv ^_^ !!!!^_^!!!!

thanks
-j

[Boo]

Just use ext3 for formatting your partitions. I know they say XFS is better for large files but how much better...you would only use it for a data storage partition anyway.
your new 750GB drive will be faster than your 160 and 250GB drives so I would install your OS's (at least mint and XP) onto it as well as your main data partition.
use one of your other drives as a temp storage for azureus, or part of one (use the all of the 160GB), you can format it as fat 32 or ntfs as linux can read/write both.
I would try to have a separate download areas for azureus on both Linux and windows for simplicity or even just decide to use Linux for azureus DLs.
I use to dl stuff on my windows box (due to too much WOW) and then move them to my linux file server via its samba shares.

remember for ease of installation of OS's install windows first, then other linuxes, then debian/ubuntu/mint linuxes.
this is because debian/ubuntu/mint linuxes find and list all OS's in grub (unlike fedora).

hope this helps.