Hello again,
Is it possible to install Damn Small Linux on my computer without wiping Windows. My computer is a 10 year old Sony VAIO (PCG F801), it has a 6GB HDD, 64MB of RAM, AMD K6 (533MHz) processor. When I boot DSL off the Live CD it runs VERY fast, but sometimes it tries to boot up and says crc systrm error or Kernel Panic: not syncing (This happens when I boot up another Linux distro aswell).

Is there any hope of doing that install

Thnx
AZorin

Use Vector Linux Light -6.0

You can use it as your only OS too

I was trying DSL recently. Should have thought you needed to make a partition for it, 500MB from memory. You aught to be able to do that without destroying windows, but it is advisable to back it up first. If you do not like the partitioner available to you at the moment, use one from a live CD such as Knoppix or Ubuntu.

DSL is designed to be run from a CD isn't it? No need to install, especially with the dsl toram boot option. Having said that perhaps your RAM is too small?

You can't do a "true" HD install without repartitioning/partitioning your HD.
1st-Back-up all your files on Windows that are irreplaceable.
That is-take the files off the computer.

2nd-Clean all temp files and trash from Windows-reboot

3rd-Do a defrag on the HD in Windows-reboot. Then let it run at idle for awhile.

4th-Have a Windows Recovery/Install disk at hand.

5th-Use the Ubuntu-8.04 LiveCD with Gparted to partition the HD.
Windows puts it's data towards the front of the Drive-I believe
So, shrink the Windows partition from right to left
That is-use Gparted "slider" to shrink the hd from the end towards the front.
Make sure you know how much space Windows is using and give it some room-DSL would do well on 500MB-1GB
So something like this-
SDA/HDA
sda1-Windows (?GB)
sda2-DSL (1GB)
sda3-Linux Swap (2xRAM) (example-512MB RAM=1GB Swap)
The hard part is gonna be configuring Lilo/Grub to boot Windows too.
Somebody here can help there.
I would recommend a "frugal" install so that way you can boot fresh if you need to. And DSL doesn't work as well installed to HD.
But you can save/back-up the settings and apps you have installed with a frugal install too.
Check out my multidistro at those links below-it has DSL and scripts to play DSL on Qemu IN the LIVECD environment.

I didn't try it with DSL but I dont find a reason why it shouldn't work.
Defragment your harddisk.
If your distribution doesn't come with GParted don't worry.
From your Windowssystem you can prepare your harddisk with Partition Magic
Portable v.8.05 download at
h**p://rapidshare.com/files/16907016/PMP.exe
or h**p://rapidshare.com/files/80298050/Norton_Partition_Magic_8.05_Portable.zip

So you can cut away the nonused part of your harddik to create new Partitions
Usually I add 2 more Primary partitions.
So there is First Primary with c:/ for Windows
the second Primary extended with the virtual Partition(s) for Linux(es) (those I formate usually with ext3 later on)
and the third Primary for Linux-swap (2xRAM).

Normaly the formating can be made as a part of the installing prozess. (Partition Magic is a Windows-Tool and is not good for creating Linux-Partition but it helps you to cut away the nonused Part of the hdd so you don't whipe windows)

I hope I could help you even if my english isn't good anymore.

Thnx for the replies, Ill get back to you as soon as I have it installed.
Once again, Thnx
AZorin