Any help will be much appreciated.
 

I am running Ubuntu 8.04 on my first hard drive, and I really like it a lot.
My curiosity is making me want to "try out" some other systems to see how they compare, and maybe find one my girlfriend will like ( she isn't impressed with Ubuntu, on my 2 pc's), and I have an unused, second hard drive internally mounted.
My question is, (and please remember I am slow, and don't understand a lot of the tech. side of these things as well as many of you, so SIMPLE is the operative word), what is the best way to set up a second operating system on the number 2 drive, that I can access alternating between the two? Maybe it can't even be done, I don't know, But I don't want to risk having to reinstall my Ubuntu a third time (yes I screwed it up once already), but really would love to try some other systems out. I currently have 2 Suse, 1 Knoppix, and 1 Linspire disk I am looking to experiment with. Not all at the same time mind you. Install one, try it, and install another, etc. all on the second hard drive, without effecting my first drive. Anyone know how to accomplish this with the least amount of pain, and headache?
I know, I know, I am a pain in the arse. Thanks for any help folks.

I doubt anything that your girlfriend found undesirable with Ubuntu would be resolved by switching distros. I say this because you have to get fairly deep into the system do find real differences that aren't cosmetic. I would suggest that before you go the route of trying a different distro that you instead try a different window manager. Try looking at: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/kde for instructions on adding KDE to your Ubuntu install.

HTH

Forrest

The Linux installer will often detect other OSes and configure the bootloader automatically. This said, the safest way to proceed is to simply tell the installer not to install a bootloader---or to put the bootloader on a floppy. Then you can go back to the the known working installation and add the new one to the boot menu.

With 2 drives, I recommend putting all the OSes on one drive, and then using the other for shared data---but that's a road you may not want to go down just yet.

Trying to convert your girlfriend to Linux may fail, and could cause other side effects, so caution is advised.

The "booting" link in my sig below might be useful.

Hi,

'The LiveCD List' is a good place to look at to see if there is another distribution that you could try without installing.

This link and others are available from 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!