I know... Why?!!!! jaja.

Well the thing is that I''ve been using only linux on my box for 9 months today, the thing is that my company is installing a taxes something software that has to run under Win- shit happens.

Could some body pls tell me what to back up on my linux OS in order to not to loose all the configuration? I've tried the back up that came on mandrake but it looks like does not work that well....

wich files do I have to copy?

Thanks in advance for your help.

first of all have you tried wine? (wine is not an emulator)or(windoze emulator) It may allow you to run your tax software. Second all you need to do is create a partition for windo$z XP and make a boot floppy. Install XP and boot linux with floppy, add the entry for XP into lilo or grub config and run lilo or grub.

I've try to use Wine, but I think that I have to learn a little bit more... I can not make that software run...

About the partition, What you say is that I can create a partiton on my HD and Win$ will be installed there automatically? or do I have to tell it to install there... WinXP is a little bit too nasty with other partitions... maybe it will be better to instal Win$2000 what do you think

Easy! You don't really need to make any backups, but of course, vital files that can't be restored elsewhere should always be backed up.

<edit>
WindowsXP should find a FAT32 or NTFS partition and simply prompt you what to do with it. Alternatively it'll give you a breakdown of your partition table (showing your Linux partitions as 'unknown', I believe) allowing you to select the appropriate partition to use.
</edit>

Ensure you have a partition onto which you will install Windows.
Edit your bootloader's configuration file (as root) to suit: add an entry for your Windows partition.
Run (as root) /sbin/lilo
Reboot and install Windows.
Boot from the Mandrake 9.1 install CD (disc 1).
Enter rescue mode: press F1 and then type rescue, press enter and hey presto!
In rescue mode, mount all partitions under /mnt and then go to a console.
Type chroot /mnt and then type /sbin/lilo.
You should see your lilo entries scroll by.
Reboot and enjoy.