crossposted! 3 systems on 1 box??

Just got a new Lindows (a.k.a. Linspire) box and would like to try loading
Win98SE on it as well. Also have MDK 8.0 that I'm dying to try since I never
could get it to work on my Win98 box due to hardware incompatibility probs.
Hoping that hurdle will be overcome by the new box.

Present plan is this:1) remove existing hdd from new unit before I mess
anything up since it already has Lindows on it and it appears to be working
fine.
2)Remove secondary hdd from Win98 box after removing all
existing partitions and reformatting.
3)Install the now-clean hdd in Lindows box and reinstall
Win98SE (since I've heard Windows freaks out if it's not on the first
partition).
4)Install MDK 8.0 on half of the remaining space and
check to see if it works properly (i.e. sound, video, modem, etc...). It's a
120GB drive so I think I've got room to play with....
5)IF MDK 8.0 works acceptably, THEN install Lindows and
see how things go....

Is DrakeDisk (or whatever it's called) a data-destructive partition manager
like fdisk or is it "data friendly" like Partition Magic?
Also, any suggestions on setting up /, /usr, /home, /opt, and /var partitions
for MDK and/or Lindows? Have read that / needn't be any more than 100Mb.
("Maximum Linux Security" by Anonymous from Sams Publishing) So where does
everything else go and will it conflict with Lindows? Also, will linux be
able to have read-write access to my FAT32 partition(s)? Now, since I
typically do a lot of "file manipulation" (split, combine, move, discard,
etc.), I'm curious about fragmentation and how Linux deals with this. Have
read elsewhere that the etc2 filesystem cannot be defragged and the only way
to defrag this filesystem is to reformat the partition concerned and then
restore all the data. Can another filesystem be used with MDK and/or Lindows
or am I stuck? (Hence the previous question on read-write access to FAT32
partitions which I know can be defragged fairly easily.

Networking: How best to transfer data from Win98 box to new system? I have a
CAT5e crossover cable....is that all I need and how do I set it up? Or will
the systems just "know" (yeah, right)?

I know this is a lot to ask and I thank you if you've actually taken the time
to read this far. My apologies for the cross-post if it's inappropriate. Just
wanted to cover as much ground as possible. Any help will be much
appreciated. Just please try to keep flaming to a minimum. We were all
newbies once, right?

~~Shock~~

"The guy at the computer store said I REALLY needed to upgrade from Win98SE.
So I'm installing Linux."