Id like to start out by saying I am new to this whole linux thing so many common things probably won't be all that easy for me. However I have been using computers for quite some time and am farely good with them so I should be able to pick up things rather quick.

What I would like to do is install linux on my computer, however keeping Windows XP Pro aswell as everything else that is on it. I have 2 hard drives, one 60 Gb which contains Windows XP and all programs/games, and one 160 Gb, which is storage. Neither Hard Drives have any partitions on them other then the main.

First Question is basically how do I go about this? Can I install linux on the first hard drive, dualboot from it, and also be able to read/write to the files on the storage drive with both operating systems? I guess that would be the best option I can think of. If this is possible, which I don't see why not, can someone give me a quick run down of how to do it. If not, what other possible ways can I go about installing linux on my system?

Second question is what distrobution of linux do you reccomend for a complete beginer? I've heard alot, and read a little, on Fedora Core 3, so I think that would be my choice, but I am up to any suggestions.

So to summarize, I would like info on how to go about installing Fedora core 3 or possibly a different distro of linux on my system.

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

Hello,

With two hard-drives the best thing to do is...
Make sure your data drive is fat32, NTFS is gonna be hard to read by linux.
Secundo,
In my opinion the fedora distro is a beauty, very easy and works fine!
On the disk with your XP system you should make some free space using a partitioning program, you should have at leat 10 GB

GRTZ

.......or you could leave the 60gb drive as it is,and install linux on the 160.as suggested make the storage partition fat32.linux can read ntfs,but writing to it can cause issues.the only thing that would be changed on the 60 is the installation of the bootloader to the mbr.

So in order to make the storage drive Fat32 I would need to reformat the whole drive as it is correct? I don't see how there would be a way to convert it without reformatting, but you never know nowadays. Also two more questions..Isn't NTFS far superior of a file handling system then Fat32, and why doesn't Linux do well with NTFS?

yes,you would need to format the storage partition as fat.fat to ntfs can be done without formatting,but it's a one-way change.
ntfs is better than fat.the problem with ntfs and linux stems from propriatary developement (read:Microsoft won't release any info on ntfs).so,as it currently stands,the linux programs that allow you to write to ntfs can *sometimes* cause data loss.reading ntfs drives is a totally different matter.most if not all current distros support reading from the drive with no issues.that is why knoppix can be used to recover data from an unbootable winXP install.