The strategy for HDD partitioning will depend on whether you want to dual-boot Window XP and Linux, or run with Linux only. I was not sure initially whether Linux would be able to support all the important features of this latest Toshiba model. The label on the keyboard specifically states "Designed for Microsoft Windows XP/2000" which did not bode well...
I therefore felt it would be safer to create a dual boot system, keeping XP solely as an insurance policy. With hindsight, I would not have done this. Wiping the HDD and doing a complete Linux install from scratch would have been a lot easier (but I did not know then what I know now!).
As shipped, the Toshiba HDD has 3 partitions (this is from memory, as I did not document it at the time. The main point to note is there are two logical drives, C: and D:, each providing 19.5G of storage).
0 (Primary free) 7.8M
1 (Primary FAT-32) 19.5G Volume label C:
2 (Extended) 19.5G
5 (Logical FAT_32) 19.5G Volume label D:
I was going to have to resize these to allow space for the Linux install. Somewhat lacking in confidence in low-level HDD manipulations, I decided to find some software that would operate in both Windows XP and Linux environments, and that did not cost a fortune. My eventual choice, for better or worse was Paragon Partition Manager 5.0.
This will allow you to "shrink" the logical FAT-32 partition to a much smaller size. I settled for 2G.
DO NOT TRY TO MOVE THE START OF THIS OR ANY WINDOWS PARTITION OR WIN XP WILL FAIL TO BOOT and you will have to re-install it. As I did.
More information on dual-boot partitioning (refers to Red Hat 7.3, but should be adaptable) is given here.Having created a reasonable mix of partitions, you can install Linux from your chosen distribution. These instructions relate to Red Hat 8.0. To boot from the installation CD, hold down <Ctrl> <Esc> while the PC is booting, and you will enter a setup menu (after pressing <F1>) allowing the boot device (HDD/ FDD/ CDROM ..) to be selected.