I just wan to get this straight before I go onto installing Linux. I have Windows XP home edition so what I should do is run the Disk Defragmenter and then the Scandisk right? I'm hoping to install Mandrake Linux so it is supposed to resize the Windows partition for me if I ask it to (right?) So what would happen if I were to install Lilo into the MBR? What would happen if I installed GRUB into the MBR? Would I still be able to boot Windows XP and Linux at the same time? Or do I just not install a boot loader? Thanx.

Make sure you have backups of all important data first!

Whoa... no Linux is not going to re-size your partition for you. If you haven't any free space, you're either going to have to re-install W'Doze, but during installation choose to re-partition the drive... or, there is a commercial application widely used known as partition magic that will re-size it, or, er... buy another disk.

Yeah the real point to having a boot loader is to be able to boot multiple operating systems... or really the point is to boot a number of different kernels into the same operating system, but that's getting ahead. Grub is awesome, I prefer Lilo, but really whichever.

Luck,

Finegan

but I went to the Mandrake webpage and it said that Mandrake will resize my current Windows partition so that Linux can be installed in the new partition. Did I read wrong? And is Partition Magic hard to use? Is it simply, "Resize Partition"?

Not quite true any more; the latest Readhat and Mandrake releases can deal with non-destuctive of resizing FAT/FAT32 partitions, although I'm sure how well they cope with NTFS partitions.
When mucking with partitions in general, the standard disclaimer still applies: back up your existing data just in case...

Partition Magic can handle (AFAIK) non-destructive resizing NTFS partitions.

mandrake has its own disk partitioning tool DiskDrake. it is very safe. i installed Mdk 8.1 on my box with Win ME. i just resized a FAT32 partiton and chose auto allocate. Woosh job done.
its that simplewith DiskDrake. well backup data just in case.

Holy Cucumber batman! Well I stand very corrected. Thank you DMR. It stand to reason that the distros would eventually have to come out with a tool to squish Windows aside so as to make a dual boot installation possible without having to do a dual installation. Rockin'

Thanks again,

Finegan

finegan,

Um, I'm not really sure if I'm ready for the "Batman, Robin, and a Cucumber" visual...