Ok, here is what I would do if you have just stuff (where operating systems are NOT stuff) and want Linux also:

First, only way Linux will get to the stuff right is for it to be in FAT32 file system. In theory you will be able to red NTFS but not write to it, so easiest thing is this:

Stuff gets moved to a logical drive in a secondary partition, then converted to FAT32 if needed.

Open up space toward beginning of drive.

Essentially you will need to do soemthing RedHat does not like newbies to do-- manually set up the parts in the RH installer, as below:

/boot 256 MB -- first partition.
(leaves room for alternate kernels later, among other things-- my boot has 2 enterprise, 1 SMP, a Win4Lin, etc in it right now)
SWAP , 2 times RAM in computer, second partition
/
(no, nothing after) remaining open space between end of SWAP and beginning of Extended partition.

The way RH will then install is that /boot will be happy and in first 1024 portions of HD that it favors, SWAP will then never run very low even if you game in Linux while surfing and doing webdev and editing graphics at once, and / will hold whole rest of file system until you outgrow the harddrive or move your stuff off HD to make room for more Linux.

Mandrake will take this part structure and live with it also. I have not tried to see what the best sizes are for Slack yet.