mesmann: i'm not sure of what you are talking about but maybe you have not understood how linux (and more generally unix) filesytem work.
Linux use two partition type generally, one for swap partition and one for file partition.
The swap partition is used like the swap file you have on windows, but it's stored in a dedicated partition for much better performances, some distribution absolutely require one. This swap partition should be something like 128mb.
Then you need to have at least one partition to store the linux files of course. Linux is using one big arborescence for all your partitions. And you have to define how the partition can be accessed by defining a mount point. The first partition to create is the root partition (the mount point is /). Then you can create other partitions for example you can mount one to '/home'. So when you will go to /home you will be on this another partition. The floppy disk can be accessed at /mnt/floppy when you mount it at this point....
Hope it will give you a general idea of the error you got
