!!warning!! !!warning!!

oooooooookkk...so i get a new hdd for xmas. to be specific i got...

(well i was going to post a link here but i cant till i get 5 posts. so this is what it is- SAMSUNG 160GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model SP1614C, OEM Drive Only)

now its still in the mail(nothing to open on xmas day v.v and i currently have only 8 gb left(at one point i had 30 MB left!! SCARY!!!) on my current hard drive so i wasnt sure if it was safe to began getting linux. you can began to tell right there that i dont know to much.

so i dont really know exactly how to install the harddrive(i had intended on relying on the guide that came with it. after doubting, i looked up how to do it with google. found an "ok" guide but a better one would be nice.

so i started to look around here and discovered that i have no clue what im doing. i dont intend on being able to know everything instantly but i have to start somewhere and i have all of one week to learn as much as i can before school starts again (>_<). so i know kinda what a partition is now(its a part of a hdd that has been "given" to an OS for use...right?). but i need help basically setting up my harddrive so that it is at least useable by linux with out having to reformat it and such. id also like for it to be a duel boot pc so i can use either or whenever it is needed. and explaination on how to do that and where to do that would be very helpful. and what about having the harddrives useable by both OSs? is that possible? if so what do i need to do.

where can i begin to learn the basics of linux(on this site or else where). what do i need to know simply to have it running and cappable if i NEED to use it.(ill stay on windows for a bit while i practice with linux.)

as you can see......i suck at this. so thats why im here. you all started somewhere. and i want to begin my "journy."

Maybe the best place to start would be a "Live" distro. These are distrobutions of linux that run off of a cd, without installing to your hard drive (though some of them will let you install it if you want to)

There are many live cd's out there and are a good way to start your journey in linux. You will be able to try it out and get to know it a litlle bit and still not actually touch your hard drive.

I recomend trying
http://www.knoppix.org/
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/mandrakemove/
http://www.suse.com/us/private/downl...nux/index.html

or there is a huge list of live cds http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

thank you!!!!

and a question spawned from your sig......

doesnt binary read left to right and not right to left?

cause i would have read 10 as 1.

EDIT:what is the most common/easiest/interactive with windows version of linux? (all seperate Qs, but if there is one that sticks out as the best, what is it?)

actually, 10 in binary is 2 in decimal. so "There are 2 types of people in this world. Those who understand binary, and those who don't", its just a little joke.

binary is all 1s and 0s. "0" is 0, "1" is 1, "10" is 2, "11" is three, "100" is 4, and so on.
Binary is spoken left to right so to say "1001000111" it would be "One double zero one triple zero triple one"

Common distros are Fedora, Mandrake, SuSE, Slackware, Debian...A good many actually.

Easiest? This is an often asked question. You will get different oppinions from everyone, but most would say Mandrake, Fedora, or SuSE. There is also "Lindows" or "Linspire" but these cost money.

Interactive with windows? I'm not sure what you mean. Pretty much every distro that is "not Red Hat or Fedora" will be able to read files on your windows xp (NTFS) drive 'out of the box', read not write, you can only look at the files, play the mp3, whatever. Not change them or put new stuff there or whatever. This can be done, but it is still experimental and can cause you to lose information on the windows drive, so I wouldn't recomend it. Every distrobution can access 'vfat' both read and write safely, vfat=FAT32, so if you have Windows 98 you would have complete access to all files on that drive.

ahhh...i see....i understand the use of the doubling concept. but ive always done the math from left to right...like this

101010
1,2,4,8,16,32

so >in the past<, i would have said that as 1+4+16...21

now i know though...cool(ive heard the joke. but ive always been like "but wouldnt that be 1 kind and hence ruin the joke?)

and ive been looking at the Suse linux link that you gave me. does that come on a CD? do i need to order that?

and by interactive, i ment that it would be able to read and write with it which you picked up on ^_^

my current hdd is ntfs. but with the new one, i can still make it anything i want. can XP read vfat? and you said linux could so thats no biggy.

what are the major differences between these versions of linux?

EDITh yea, thank you so much. youve already been insanely helpful. do you have AIM or something? (IM is much easier than forum in my opinion)

don't have AIM, but i have GAIM, the linux AIM program Ns1701 is my sn

can i instant message you with AIM?

EDIT:nvm ^_^

Yeah you can put that name in your buddy list and get him. GAIM is basicly the major IM programs in one. Like I can open two AIM names, a Yahoo and something else all in GAIM. MUCH BETTER Then AIM! I would also go to Distrowatch, click on search and look at all the live distros. There are many cool ones out there, something to play with while you wait!

It can. In fact, windows was the one who created it. windows 98 and below still use it.

>where can i begin to learn the basics of linux(on this site or else >where).

Visit my newly-formed webpage,

http://www.websamba.com/Linux_Docs_Links

Sheng-Chieh

p.s. Review the "general" documentation and
"general" console first.