Luckily (in one sense?), I have my Windows set up in a FAT 32 format. My hard drive is only 7 gigs. This is the main reason why I would just as soon make a clean switch, rather than mess with a dual boot. Will this enable me to selectively delete all things related to Windows and save everything else, within a single partition? This would really make things easier if I can somehow do this.

I have been using this Live Knoppix CD, which enables me to see things in the Windows partition without actually creating another partition, since it is running off of the CD and RAM.

I guess what I am thinking might be the solution is to install Suse in a separate partition, leaving Windows alone. Then copy my important files from the Windows partition over to the Linux partition. Then just delete the entire Windows partition altogether when I feel ready to?

Next question is, after I install the Suse distro with limited functionality on limited space, say 1.5 gigs, then get around to deleting the Windows partition after I copy over the important files, will I then upgrade additional Suse components on another partition? Is there anything wrong with that?

Why delete the windows partition? Install suse and keep using your windows partition to store whatever data you have. Linux can safely read from and write to FAT32 partitions.

Tux,

I do not have answers to all of your questions, but I can answer some of them. Linux can read Windows partitions (NTFS and FAT32) and can write to FAT32 partitions as well (as tuxrules stated). You need to install Linux in its own space (as you planned), so any install would generally require adding at least two new partitions to your hard drive using Linux file systems (swap + ext3 or swap + resierfs) and reducing the size of the Windows partition to accommodate adding them.

Additionally, SUSE uses a fair amount of space. If you have the talent to use it without a desktop environment like KDE or GNOME, you can probably get away with 1.5 GB. Otherwise, you will probably need at least 3 GB--especially if you are going to be adding lots of files later. Of course, you need to do some research before making your decision. Good luck in any case.

If I delete Norton Antivirus and a couple of other smaller programs, that will give me close to 4 gigs free, though my Windows partition will be unprotected, except for my firewall.

I would not recommend removing an antivirus program, as you may need to go online with your Windows OS and that would leave you quite vulnerable. Incidentally, I would recommend doing any Linux install offline as well (disconnect any modems or broadband connections during install).