Query Re Debian Install Onto LBA Disk with RedHat Partitions

[Ben Minton <benminton@austarnet.com.au>]

Hi.

I have an 80 GB HDD that I wish to install Debian 3r1 onto. As I
originally learnt howto Linux via RedHat I do not want to make this an
exclusive Debian system (sorry, not yet).

Current partition table is:

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *         1       510   4096543+  83  Linux
/dev/hda2           511      1507   8008402+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3          1508      1586    634567+  82  Linux swap
/dev/hda4          1587      9729  65408647+   5  Extended
/dev/hda5          1587      2209   5004216   83  Linux
/dev/hda6          2210      2832   5004216   83  Linux

/dev/hda1 contains a stripped down install of RH 9.0
/dev/hda2 contains a full install of RH 9.0
/dev/hda5 & 6 are 8GB partitions made using fdisk under RH 9.0

>From URL:
http://www.au.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch-preparing.en.html

* snip *

In all other cases, you'll need to partition your hard disk before
starting the installation to create partition-able space for Debian. If
some of the partitions will be owned by other operating systems, you
should create those partitions using native operating system
partitioning programs. We recommend that you do not attempt to create
Debian Linux partitions using another operating system's tools. Instead,
you should just create the native operating system's partitions you will
want to retain.
end * snip *
  
Reading through all the documentation, I get the feeling that I should
either trash the sys, reinstall Debian first, then repartition and
reinstall the RedHat partitions or maintain the exisiting partitions
that contain data, delete all the other ones and make them as required
using the Debian partitoning tool?

Some practical advice would be appreciated, thanks.
-- 
Ben Minton <benminton@austarnet.com.au>