How can I see what partitions are laid out on the disk and what free space there is ( unpartitioned)

I think the existing partitions are taking up about 50% but i cant seem to find where it will show me that unused space.

how do i tell how big the disk is in the system?

Thanks again for your help.

If you have it installed, as root, you could run cfdisk to view the layout.
If you want something alittle more graphical, you can download and compile QtParted

What is even alittle more easier to do disk manipulations with is the SystemRescueCD, which includes qtparted.

U can use the format command on root for viewing disk slice configuration.

In format utility, select the disk, then go to partition menu and then print the partitions. This will list all the created partitions and allocated space for each. It also list which slice is being used as swap as well as total disc capacity.

View the block numbers for each slices and compare it with total size. U will be able to find the unused space of your hard disk.