If you want to dual boot, the only way to do it safely is to start over. That means backing all your stuff up, maybe the entire windows installation, to some sort of media - i.e. dvd or other hard drive, and then start by installing windows first, in a partition size you choose
(if you want to keep windows as your main distro, just leave 4-7gb free for *nix
), then install *nix in whatever space is left, and then leave a few hundred mb for swap. Generally it will go as follows - start the windows install, clear all the partitions in its partition manager, make a partition in the size you choose, and install. Next install whatever linux distribution you choose. Although I do not use it, all Red Hat based distributions are good to start with, as they do a lot for you. This includes Mandriva
(though it is partially Connectiva
), and Fedora Core. So I would actually suggest Fedora as an experimenting distribution. At the install, make a partition that fills the rest of your hard drive space, but leave 512mb free. Then turn those 512mb into a swap partition. Continue with the install, load the bootloader onto the MBR
(master boot record
), and you have a dual boot.
These are probably a lot of things that you have never heard about, but if you have a good backup
(don't pass on the backup
), a little experimenting won't hurt. A simple google will answer most linux questions - unless if they are why my 720 will not allow user logins! ARGH!
-There are also many great linux sites out there - the one I personally like is www.linuxquestions.org , it also has a forum that you can search through.
--If you have any install questions, feel free to post on this thread, or PM me for help.