I''m about to install Red Hat Linux on my Windows machine with a 38GB hard drive, but I need to either shrink my Windows partition or install a new drive. I plan on shrinking it with a tool like fips. But, I''ve never done this before, so I need to know how stable fips is before I screw something up-- or before fips does. Has anyone ever had any major problems with fips, and should I use another tool?

I''ve used fips a few times without problems.

Just make sure you use it from a DOS boot disk, and that you have defragmented the filesystem you are resizing before (and I mean right before, is possible) you use it.

When I defragment my system (you say right before?) should I use Windows Disk Defragmenter or get something else?

Windows defrag should be OK. The problem can be that some blocks can not be moved at the end of the disk. I think that is mentioned in the usual documentation for most distros.

As mentioned above, windows defrag might leave one or two segments out in the middle of a drive, leaving you with only a few megs to split into a linux partition. Oddly enough though, if you use a 3rd party defragmenter, it will move those segments.

If you want to (possibly) save some time, using a 3rd party defragmenter might be a good idea.

At one point (assuming you''ve used fips before and know what I''m talking about) fips asks you if you want a backup file to be written to the disk your booting from to restore your hard disk if something bad happens.

I say yes.

It then asks if I have a bootable floppy in my A: drive.

Well yeah I have that boot disk in there with fips on it, but if I say yes, will it erase any other files on that disk, like say, fips? Or will it just write the file on there and move on?

Soon after that, it asks me to choose a cylinder on my hard disk, using the directional buttons, and essentially decide how big the new, empty partition will be, and how much I''ll leave over for the old Windows partition. Is there anything here that I should worry about, for instance, will the BIOS have any trouble if I choose the wrong cylinder, anything like that?