Moving to Linux? Try Starting Small

yup knoppix and mepis

I am gonna start with fedora core 3!

But i am still worried about partitioning since i already have my win xp and have some backup which i am afraid of losing.
currently i am doing alot of reading on how to partition and stuff , if anyone can also add in some more info that would be helpful :D

Ahh yes, I know the partition - bootsector - MBR, etc... stuff really sucks.
I avoid this stuff like hell.
Although I'd have to say linux usually handles installations well on a multipartition system.

Well maybe I can bless you with my extensive experience (hinhinhin)

I use "partition magic" to resize partitions. Get the latest (illegal) version, because version 7.0 does not handle well XP partitions. And backup your crucial data, this program has already messed up my disks more than once.

I use "ranish boot manager" (free) to clone partitions
and disks mainly. You can also use it to format, delete, add partitions, fix the MBR (but not comlpex things such as resize, move...). It holds on a bootable floppy.

If you mess up your disk and dont see any partition anymore, dont panic, you can use "rstudio" to retrieve your data, even after a format (you'll need another PC or another hard disk though, to run windows and rstudio on it).

If you have enough free space on your disk, you can reduce the size of your XP partition using partition magic (defragment before doing that), then create a linux partition in the unpartitioned space that you just created (just run fedora installer and tell him to install in that unpartitioned space).

lol rolf i've noticed that you always post like 2 different posts after each other :P how come?

weird huh?

Weird indeed. Happens sometimes. (ok this time I did it on purpose :) )

I think it's because read again after posting and realize that I didn't answer the question completely or clearly. I tend to repeat, double-check, redo lots of things in life.

And as you can see I am still editing my post...
:D

lol :P