my 2nd reinstall. partition questions for dual hdd setup

[jxsin]

i have posted on other board, got some questions anwsered.. but im going to reinstalled redhat7.3. heres the situation. this will be my 2nd reinstallation. i have dual 6gig hdd. im am not booting windoze at all, which i think some people assume i am. just redhat. i want hda to be for linux and programs. and hdb for storage. on my last install it partitioned hdb into hdb1. i THINK it was for swap. is this normal. should i create a hdb2 partition. i am very new to linux, still have that factory fresh smell ;)

also...

i want to have my hdb mounted right on boot so i dont have to mount it. that gets annoying. is it alright to have it automatically mount on boot? in fact i dont really fully understand what mounting does on a technically stand point.

i have read MANY posts and searched google.com/linux to death. nothing with my exact question. its allways a dual boot question.

thank you for your time and anwsers

[michaelk]

If you use the expert installation mode you can create the partitions on whichever drive you desire. For a home computer its a matter of personal preference on how the drives are partitioned. Look at this NHF for ideas
http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/Installation/How_to_Create_a_Multiple_Partition_System.html

Yes, you can mount your second drive on boot up. The file is /etc/fstab. man fstab and mount for more details.