New to linux, questions

[Rifter]

Good afternoon, i will be installing linux Mint 6 for the first time tonight. It will go onto a new computer with clean unpartitioned HD. I am going to install Vista next week when my 64 bit DVD arrives and dual boot. If i install linux first then vista i am going to assume vista will screw up my MBR and fubar my ability to boot linux(i know MS hates linux), if you could tell me how to get around that it would be great as i will need to know soon. Also im going to partition my HD as follows is this a good idea(i have no idea what im doing but tried to do some reading first), it will be a dual boot system(ill use linux, g/f will use windows unless she likes linux) mainly used for normal desktop office apps, surfing, e-mail, some minor video/picture editing/encoding, no games.

system specs
AMD quad core Phenom (i think its 2.2 or 2.4Ghz)
4GB ram
Asus 780G mobo with onboard everything
1 TB total space on HD on one physical drive
old IDE DVD/CD burner

Formatting plan
linux Swap = 256MB
/ Formatted as ext3 = 15 Gig.
Vista boot partition NTFS = 100GB
Data Partition1 NTFS = 500GB(media files)
Data Partition2 NTFS = 100GB(Vista/windows programs)
/home formatted ext3 = remaining space

is that a good idea? thanks alot!

[piratesmack]

Take a look at Fred's "Considerations before you install"
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=11872

Yeah, Vista will remove the Linux bootloader, but you can restore it from the Linux Mint Live CD:
http://linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php/How ... _your_grub

[Rifter]

Thanks! im about to go pickup my parts and start to build the computer in 10 min, if all goes well ill be back here running linux within a few hours!

[piratesmack]

Thanks! im about to go pickup my parts and start to build the computer in 10 min, if all goes well ill be back here running linux within a few hours!

Good luck

[Rifter]

It worked! i almost had a heart attack because the frist time i attempted insall it said i had a hard drive problem and it was defective and could not continue the install and back at the desktop it would not see my hard drive or any partitions i had just set up, but i restarted and all went well. Thanks guys im sure ill flood this forum with stupid questions starting soon

[Zwopper]

Welcome to Mint!
...and as it says at the top of this page:

"Forum rules
There are no such things as "stupid" questions. However if you think your question is a bit stupid, then this is the right place for you to post it. Please stick to easy to-the-point questions that you feel people can answer fast. For long and complicated questions prefer the other forums within the support section."