Linux Boot while running Windows
 

I was wondering if there is a way to boot up a linux os while windows is running.. I am not sure if this is possible, but if it is, could somebody walk me through on how to do it?

While running windows you can boot a linux installation with "vmware workstation".
http://www.vmware.com/products/desktop/ws_features.html

It works very well with a lot of ram...

Since you are running windows, here is my tip. Microsoft's Virtual PC 2004 Software. Buy the software, then create a 'Virtual PC' and install with your OS CD's. This way, it uses a file for its hard drive on your real hard drive, and then to the 'Virtual PC' it would be a real hard drive (but it's faux). It uses all the other components for the Virtual PC's system. Well worth investing.

be more specific: do you want to boot a native linux install on one of your partitions?

I guess what i really wanted was a way to gain unrestricted access to windows files (on an NTFS formatted harddrive), and i thought since linux and other versions of windows (other than XP, since that is what im running now) bypass file restrictions, i figured running a linux distro while booted up in XP will give me the same kind of unrestricted access. It is very important that windows is running while i load linux.

No Joke, look on the microsoft website for Microsoft Virtual PC 2004. It is the best way to do so

ok, ill give it a look. Thanks for the help! :)