I cannot get Mepis or Unbuntu to boot from CD;I did,however, get Freespire to boot. Tried Gparted but got lost.When using Gparted should I Partition? Tried auto.it did not work. I am running Windows Xp on Dell Dimension 4600 with Intel P4, have 111GB HD with about 80 GB free. That is all I know now. Any Ideas?

When you say "won't boot"... Are you getting a menu, asking you to "Start Ubuntu/Mepis", or does it just act like its skipping the CD, and going straight to your Windows desktop, does it just freeze, Do you get Error messages, etc. Some Computers have minor hardware issues, that make installing a "Live" distribution difficult. Not sure about Mepis, but I know Ubuntu has an "Alternate Install CD".. which is a text based install of the OS. Its still quite easy, and it generally works just fine. For instance, my desktop, because I use Dual Monitors, the Ubuntu Live CD's, usually never work. If I install using the Alternate Install, it works perfectly, then I just configure my second monitor once I'm started up.

I wouldn't worry about the Gparted live CD just yet. When you choose a distro and install it, it will have a partitioning tool with the installer. Depending on how much you plan to add to Linux, etc, I'd dedicate at least 20gigs of your Free 80 to Linux.

FWIW, FreeSpire/Linspire. are awful IMO, and is not a good way to judge other Linux Distros.

IGF

Initial start up ignores the CD outright, going straight to boot from harddrive.

Then you probably didn't burn the disk correctly.

Make sure you're burning it as an image, burn at no faster than 2x.

IGF

I agree it's most likely a burning error or bad image download.