[vox-tech] Help with RH Linux 7 Dual-Boot Install

[Joey Karalius <jwkaralius@ucdMAPSavis.edu>]

I'm a Linux newbie looking for some technical advice before I install
RedHat Linux 7 on
my computer.

I have a custom-build box:

MSI K7T266 Pro (MS-6380) ATX Mainboard
1.4GHz 133FSB K-7 Athlon
512MB DDR PC266
ATI Radeon 32MB DDR AGP
Pioneer 16X DVD-ROM
Liteon CD-RW 12X10X32X
External ZIP-100
Lexar CF/SM reader (USB)
Epson Stylus Color 640 printer
56K/V.90 modem (not sure which brand but I can find out, if needed)
10/100 BaseT PCI Net Card (again, not sure of brand)
15" monitor (came from my last computer, a Toshiba Infinia 7160)

I have two HDD:
40.9 GB Ultra ATA100 7200 (Western Digital)
This is my master drive on which I have installed Windows 98SE

30.7GB Ultra ATA100 7200 (Maxtor)
This slave drive is formatted for Windows but is empty.

I want to do a dual-boot install with the slave drive fully dedicated to

Linux.

I have the Osborne Complete Reference for Linux with associated CD-ROMs
(RH Linux 7, Caldera OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4, and SuSE Linux 7.0)

Questions:
Do I have everything I need to do this, and can I create a dual-boot
system?

Are these components compatible for Linux?

What partition sizes would be best, given the size of my drive (30.7GB)?

Is LILO recommended, or should I just boot Linux from a floppy?

The book has fairly complete installation instructions (I think), but if

anyone out there has tips and/or tricks I'd certainly appreciate it.

I've done a small amout of work on Linux systems (a little bit of C
and Perl programming), but I've never installed or configured a new
system.

I'm familiar with using only Red Hat, so if anyone has reccomendations
for the other distributions, I'm all ears.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Joey
Davis, CA