Partitioning help

Situation
I’m not a complete linux noob, but this is only my second time installing it, first time with no help.

I’ve already done all the things in the newbie post, I am now in the process of installing openSuse. I’m at the Disk section of the install. I clicked on “Edit Partition Setup” then I went Expert - Reread partition table.

I reread because my windows drives were not there. I have a second partition in windows (D) that has files I want to keep. The C drive I don’t care about.

Right now I see the following:
/dev/sda 298gb ST322…
/dev/sda1 39gb HPFS/NTFS /windows/C
/dev/sda2 259gb Ext
/dev/sda5 259gb HPFS/NTFS /windows/D

What I want

So… I want to keep D. I want to put linux on sda1 (So delete C).

Questions

  1. What do I have to delete?
  2. What do I have to create? How?
  3. How do I create the swap partition? (I have 2gbs of RAM)
  4. Any other partitions I should create?
  5. Am I going to experience any problems with the D drive not being ext?

Bonus Question
6. Is there anyway to change the file system of D now or later? For example, I might be getting an external HDD. If I backup the files in D, can I change the file system of d to ext (mkfs? <— Is that right?)?

Solved. I backed up what i needed and set up the default partitions.