triple boot including Windows plus data partition

[thorper]

I have a spare 250GB HDD and was thinking about installing this into a spare laptop and triple booting. My idea is Windows Vista, about 20GB, PCLinuxOS, about 20GB, and a test PCLinuxOS for trying out non repo software, about 20GB. The remaining spare would be a data partition. I have some questions that I need to have clear in my mind before I start.

1. Do I create 4 primary partitions, one for each o/s and one for the data? I know i need to install Windows first.

2. I want the data to be available to each of the o/s so I am thinking of making that partition NTFS or FAT32. Will this work?

3. Should each of the Linux partitions have a swap? If so then how would I setup each partition?

I will use GParted to create the disk structure before doing any install, so if i get this right the install should be straight forward.... I hope. Any advice on how to setup a disk to this configuration would be welcome.

[AS]

I have a spare 250GB HDD and was thinking about installing this into a spare laptop and triple booting. My idea is Windows Vista, about 20GB, PCLinuxOS, about 20GB, and a test PCLinuxOS for trying out non repo software, about 20GB. The remaining spare would be a data partition. I have some questions that I need to have clear in my mind before I start.

1. Do I create 4 primary partitions, one for each o/s and one for the data? I know i need to install Windows first.

Vista on a 20 GB partition will run out of space within few days ...

2. I want the data to be available to each of the o/s so I am thinking of making that partition NTFS or FAT32. Will this work?

NTFS for vista, ext4 for linux installation, allow for an extra partition, say "data", ntfs formatted that will be accessible from both systems.

3. Should each of the Linux partitions have a swap? If so then how would I setup each partition?

Swap is a partition, that can be shared across the two PCLinuxOS installations.

I will use GParted to create the disk structure before doing any install, so if i get this right the install should be straight forward.... I hope. Any advice on how to setup a disk to this configuration would be welcome.

partition 1, primary, Vista, 40 GB, NTFS
partition 2 primary swap  > RAM size
partition 4 extended:
  partition 5 root filesystem / of main PCLinuxOS 20 GB, ext4
  partition 6 /home filesystem of main PCLinuxOS 20 GB, ext4
  partition 7 root filesystem / of test PCLOS 20 GB, ext4
  partition 8 /home filesystem of test PCLOS 20 GB, ext4
  partition 9 /data, NTFS (shared across all installations)

AS

[thorper]

No problem with the Vista partition being 40GB. I won't be installing a lot of stuff onto Vista anyway. just the odd game and a USB TV stick.

With partition 9 being in an  extended partition, it will be readable from with Windows?

I am not too concerned about large /home partitions as I will put all data into the data partition and very little data into the test install.

[AS]

With partition 9 being in an  extended partition, it will be readable from with Windows?

Yes, the structure primary / extended / logical is supported from both system, however, because you will install Windows first, try that immediately, just in case ...

[thorper]

Thanks for your advice