I've been working about 3 weeks on getting linux. I've probably ran into every problem you could ever imagine. I've probably spent atleast 20 hours working on this. I've decided to just "screw it" and wipe my HD, install redhat.

What preparations should I make?
Any hardware information needed besides that found in the windows device manager?
What IP information do I need (I'm using a wireless router)?
Any advice for the big dive?

Thanks for all the help this forum has produced. I hope in a few months of linux, I will be able to finally start giving back to this forum instead of just extracting answers.

I would consider installing Fedora instead of redhat because of discontinued support from redhat inc for redhat. As far as hardware, Fedora is pretty good at recognizing most hardware. During the installation process, you will be asked to create three partitios
one for
/boot
/root
/home
I would create a separate /home partition so if in the future you have any problems all data saved in your /home can be accessed. I was never able to get my wireless working with redhat9, then i didnt really tried. other than that, good luck and if you encounter any problems post them here

wait, answer this real quick. I need 3 partitions?? How big do you recommend they be (I have 80 gig HD)? Please answer hurry!

You should write down the following things (from the Windows System Info):
Video Card (Manufacturer, Model, Max Resolution, Max Refresh Rate ... whatever else)
Monitor (Manufacturer, Model, Max Resolution, Max Refresh Rate)
Hard Disk (Manufacturer, Model, Capacity)
RAM (Capacity)
CD ROM manufacturer
Ethernet Card manufacturer

Along with anything else you can see that may be handy.

Backup all documents off your computer, so you dont lose them.

As snakeo2 said, try Fedora Core 2 or 3, since they are the most recent from RedHat, so are best supported.

I hope this helps
--Ian

/boot = 100Mb or so
/ = 15 Gb
/home = the rest

EDIT: You also need a swap partitition. This should be twice your RAM, up to 1GB. IE if you have 256Mb RAM, allow 512 Mb Swap.

--Ian

1 last question. ext2 or ext3?
I have 512mb ram. 1gig swap partition right?
Do I need a /root partition?

Edit, I'm stupid, / is the root partition correct?

ext3. It has Journalling, which means that you don't have to do a fsck (scandisk) whenever there is a powercut.

1GB Swap yes, although you could probably get away with less if you want.

You don't really need a separate partition for /root. Swap, /, /boot and /home are enough for most people

--Ian

YES! FINALLY! A Distro that works! Got redhat on my computer great!

I'm in a state of euphoria, I had started to believe it wasn't possible. It looks great!

I'm not even dissapointed the wireless internet didn't set up automatically. That's a problem for another day. Thank you all for all your help!