Dual-boot Mint4.0 and Vista Home Premium x86

I'm planning on installing Linux Mint 4.0 on my Vista rig. I currently have a 750GB harddrive with 3 partitions, one for Vista OS(60GB), one for programs(60GB), and one for data(movies/music/games/etc.). My question is....should I create another partition for Linux or would it be better to purchase another harddrive, maybe a 160GB, and install Linux and Vista OS on it with 80GB each?

If your just using Linux to experiment with Linux,then you could just give it

30 GBs on your main drive,as you won`t need much data space.

On the other hand,a second physical drive is great for backups of crucial data,

so you could go that route,and just give Linux 30Gb of an 80/160 Gb drive

(vary sizes to preference)

thanks I ended up creating a partition...Installed and running with no problems.