You can try installing linux with VMWARE in windows,
so that it won't mess up your HDD.

I'm confused. Is this a question, a suggestion or a random comment out of place? (because if it's not a question, it most likely won't go here...). And I fail to see how installing linux "messes" the HD. Creating partition is a good practice even if you use only one Operating System...

Oh, and there are a lot of alternatives for VMWare too... such as Xen, QEMU, Bochs, Plex86, User-mode Linux. Heck, even Wine and Cedega are alternatives, especially if all you want is to run a few applications from one OS without the need to load the _whole_ Operating System. And if it's just for testing purposes... there're plenty of LiveCD's around

VMWare's more likely to mess up your hard drive than a live CD.

There are providers online who give you a remote unix shell, free of cost. You have to have a good enough reason though. May be you could try that....

yesterday when i uninstall bootloader of mandriva, using fdisk/mbr, it caused my XP not able to boot.
so, i think if i am not proned to use linux, i can just install it by using vmware, so that i can remove it safely

That's because Windows XP did something funny when fixing the boot loader. Problem is more between the keyboard and the chair in this case...

A windows tool broke windows. So install Linux in a
VMWare session, pay 450 dollars to be able to run a
secure free OS under a bug-riddled, highly expensive
piece of bovine excrement? - Duh!

Look, man, you haven't learnt anything about computers
(their inner workings) or Linux in over three years of site
membership. Why don't you just let it rest, install Vista in
parallel to XP, find yourself a site where your eulogies of
the blessing of windows are welcomed, and leave this site
behind you, and us alone?



Cheers,
Tink

Next year, I will upgrade my computer to the following spec"

AMD Athlon 64 4000. OR, Pentium 3.2GHz with HiperThreading Tech,
SATA HDD 200 GB,
RAM 1GB,
256GB PCI Express VGA card,

To prepare for WINDOWS VISTA.

That's a lot of money to spend just to be able to say "Hey, guys - Look how awesome my crashed computer is!"

And the sad thing is: you'll NEED that, too.

And now go away :)


Cheers,
Tink

Tink = teh ownage.

You will need about twice that in RAM. Also, make sure to install a floppy into that beast so that you can install Windows drivers for your SATA controller.

That P4 3.2 will be a dog under Vista too, may have to go higher with that.

I will buy P4 or AMD DUAL CORE processors,
it will fly like Rocket!

i will install 2GB RAM, 440GHz type.
Buy a 19" Flat CRT monitor.
Creative Audigy sound surround, 800W speakers.
To shock my neighbor.

And why do you think we want to know what specs your future pc has? Btw buying 'the latest and greatest' is always a really dumb thing to do. Take the specs down a small bit and you'll save 30% while hardly be able to notice the difference in speed.
But well, if you can't even fix the mbr after 3 years as Tinkster pointed out, you probably won't see a point in that. You will really have a lot of fun using Vista (if you get it installed in the first place).