Ok here is my question. I have a Windows XP box in a server tower case that is 60 Gigs, I also have a Maxtor 160 gig harddrive that has not been taken out of the box yet. I would like to put the 160 gig hard drive on my Windows box but put Mandrake Linux 10 on it. I have now idea how to start. I am definately a newbie. Thanks

I can help you here , this is actually fairly simple..

you install your hard drive, download the latest mandrake 10 official iso's, sitck the cd in, boot it.. give it a custom disk partition, then click auto allocate to see how they recommend you to lay out your hard drive, then customize as wanted, follow rest of the installer... just keep in mind the simple linux hard drive layout..

/ - this is where the root files/system files will be installed into, make it small, but make sure you give it about 6 gigs to ensure you dont accidently drain it..

/swap - this will help out your ram, recommend using about 1-3% hard drive space here... (ask around, this is how i lay my system out)

/home - this is where your personal files are going to be placed .. fill her up here :P.. (after giving root and swap thier needed space, i put all remaining space here)

(the installer was built with windows users in mind, it will auto-matically install a boot loader that'll allow the systems to dual-boot, no rolling the sleeves up for mandrake, very very newbie friendly way to start )

keep to the basic layout and you should have no problems ...

Thanks, I am gonna try it this weekend. I will let you know how it goes.