in addition to as has been said before: 1. read the manual (i installed Mandrake 7.0 & 7.1 with nothing but the manual and had no real problems -- sound card doesn't work yet & printer is dingy -- but those are not "real problems") 2. back up your data...... duh. that's why i have a CD burner. things like partitoning drives & such still frightens me, i'm just not that trusting of software in general & especially of anything M$, or anything i don't understand yet (like Linux) but... here is what i do & it might help some of you feel safe as well. 1. purchase 2 hard drives, physical drives..... 2. use the second drive for all your data files and personal stuff. letters to mom, JPGs of Alicia Silverstone, etc 3. put all of your OSs on the first physical drive, also all of your programs. 4. when ready to upgrade or install a new OS or repartiton or anything else shut off the computer 5. physically unplug the power & data to the second drive 6. fire up the system & install or whatever 7. when all is happy, power down & hook up the second drive. no matter how badly you shaft your first drive, your data is safe this assumes (dangerous to do) that you have install CDs for all your OSs & software (not true if you are using the crap that came on your system and thus don't have install disk) thus i believe it's good to get an install CD for each program you use. if you totally trash the OS drive, just start over from nothing and reinstall all of your stuff. i've been doing this for years.... i've trashed my OS so many times i've lost count. never lost any important data at all. just a suggestion hope it helps someone oh, and read the manual *before* you install =) Adrian Smith 'de telepone dude Telecom Dept. x 7042 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
