Newb Needs Help Dual Booting!

[Teapot Philosopher]

First of all, I would like to point out that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I mean, with Windows I'm comfortable and everything flows naturally... Anything outside of that domain and I am a disaster!

I guess I should say this that and the other about my system... I really don't know exactly what to say because I'm not exactly an expert on hardware... I've stolen the data below from CCleaner so it should be correct. Lol.

256MB of RAM, 1.4GHz Intel Celeron M processor.
Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Mobile
I'm using a laptop (as I would assume you've noticed)

And I tried to install Sabayon 3.3 miniEdition which I downloaded on 2 occasions from 2 different mirrors. Put them both on CDs and when I booted up my computer with the CDs in my drive neither worked. I also tried Ubuntu... That didn't work either. All three CDs just resulted in Windows loading up. I have went into the settings and saw that it is meant to boot from "Optical Device Drive" which I believe is CD, and then I put SuperDisk and USB CD next just in case... Obviously, none of the worked and Windows kept appearing. I use WinXP SP2 by the way and was hoping to DualBoot (If that means having two OS, I really am a newb).

But, I really wanna try Linux. It seems awesome. Lol. Plus, I have a hatred of Microsoft. Hence the fact that I've virtually replaced all of the Microsoft software on my computer with decent software. Though I have to admit, I do like the Vista theme which I have replicated EXACTLY and for free. Even have Vista features. I'm quite proud that it still works fast despite the rubbish processor. Lol. But enough of my ego, I need help!

EDIT
Just thought I'd mention, I've actually searched for about 2 hours total on Google, this forum and other Linux forums and still have no idea what I'm doing wrong... Please help!

[WarraWarra]

Usually in the bios / before windows loads there is F2 or del or esc button needs to be pressed to get into the bios / brains of the laptop / pc.
There should be a option to change the boot order and set the cd /dvd drive as first then 2nd hd and 3rd usb / network or anything else.
Then save and exit the bios menu.

Next the bios will first read the cd and then boot from it.
Did you already make space on the hard drive rfor a linux sintall or are you just going to play around with the live cd /dvd ?

You have a easy alternative to learn and play with linux by installing virtualbox on windows and then run linux inside the virtual pc program as a live cd or as installed , similar to opening firefox / internet explorer.

This might be the best way to go for you until more used to linux.

http://www.virtualbox.org/

If using this I linked a 20gb ext3 formated virtual hard drive image to speed up the install into virtualbox under the virtual managers part of the forum.
You can make your own it just takes a lot of time to write to disk and then format so the one I made has this already it just needs to be extracted 20gb .
Before extracting it is 1.5mb after it is 20gb.

You can also use vmware or parallels to do the same.

Hope this helps.

[Teapot Philosopher]

Thank you very much. Sorry, I'm in a rush at the moment so I'm not gonna be trying out the software at the moment cuz I'm heading out but I will definitely give it a shot later! 20GB is a lot of memory though! My laptop only has 37GB total... So I'll probably try it on my desktop.

Thanks again,
Matt

P.S. I did already know about the BIOS but that didn't work with any of the three computers I tried it with. I didn't realize I needed to create a partition beforehand though! I thought the installation disk did it for you. Apparently I was wrong. Lol. Catch ya later!

[WarraWarra]

It can do it for you but to resize and keep windows try acronis disk director demo in windows.
If not then use the disk installer software to create the partitions , then reboot and try to install.

Enjoy.

[Teapot Philosopher]

Memory. Depending on what guest operating systems you want to run, you will need at least 512 MB of RAM (but probably more, and the more the better).

Yeah... Probably not in my best interests to be running VirtualBox considering my RAM is around half of that. Lol. But I am planning on dual booting so I would appreciate any links to instructions and/or free partition software.

Thanks in advance,
Matt

P.S. - Is Sabayon user friendly, because I'm really not into using a lot of command lines. I mean, I think I've found some other distros which are specifically working on reducing the need for users to manually enter command lines etc... I was just wondering if Sabayon has the same thing in mind.

[darkscot]

P.S. I did already know about the BIOS but that didn't work with any of the three computers I tried it with.

Have you burned the CDs properly? When you download the ISO file you need to burn it as an image. If you just copy it to a CD then it won't work. You can very easily check this by looking at any of the CDs you have burned. If there is only one large file called something like 'filename.ISO' then you have done it wrong! The disk should have several folders and files on it, what they are depends on the distro.

Take a look here:
http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm
http://www.wizardskeep.org/mainhall/tutor/neroiso.html
http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/burning_iso.html

I didn't realize I needed to create a partition beforehand though! I thought the installation disk did it for you. Apparently I was wrong. Lol. Catch ya later!

You are not wrong, the installation disk CAN create the partitions for you. However, most people prefer to create the partition first then install Linux on the empty partition. Doing it in two stages like that is generally considered safer.

[Teapot Philosopher]

Oh, my word. Thank you so much. I just copied it across! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm just gonna try it now!

Um, so... You would recommend that I create my own partition? Considering I really am a total newb, should I? I mean, I know that it's best to defrag the disk a few times and then try it and there's some weird BIOS thing were you have to do something to do with the first 8GB of your drive or something... Actually, too complicated. Forget it.

I'll just use the installation disk. Thank you so much! Again! I would kiss you, but I think you're a guy and I'm not really into that! Lol.

Thank you everyone for your help!
Matt

[darkscot]

Um, so... You would recommend that I create my own partition?

I recomend you create the partition BEFORE doing the install. That way if you screw things up with the partitioning (which you won't) and Windows wont boot you will know that is the cause.
The Sabayon LiveDVD comes with a programme called Gparted which you can use to create the partition. I seem to remember there is a shortcut on the desktop to it called something like 'partition manager'?)

I know that it's best to defrag the disk a few times...

Correct! Use CCleaner to clean up your drive then run a defrag. Then reboot and do it again.

Three VERY important points!
1. Backup your data first!
2. Do not rush into it. Follow the installation wizard and if there is something you don't understand just cancel and look it up.
3. BACKUP YOUR DATA FIRST!

[Teapot Philosopher]

Okay. Backed up my data, ran CCleaner, and defragmented the disk a few times.

Is this okay?
[Removed]
I'm thinking it's all supposed to be on the left, right?

Also, I use the LiveCD which doesn't have a "Partition Manager" as far as I'm aware (Correct me if I'm wrong), so can you please suggest something else?

EDIT
Is it really necessary for me to use a separate "partition manager"? I mean, what's the advantage of using separate software and creating it myself?

[darkscot]

Also, I use the LiveCD which doesn't have a "Partition Manager" as far as I'm aware (Correct me if I'm wrong), so can you please suggest something else?

I forgot you were using the mini edition, maybe that does not include Gparted?

Is it really necessary for me to use a separate "partition manager"? I mean, what's the advantage of using separate software and creating it myself?

No, you can just go for it and let the installation partition your disk for you. Make sure you make the partition big enough (10GB?) but not too big. You can adjust the size of a Linux partition but you cannot move the starting point.
Another tip, during the installation you will get the option to 'set the hostname (i.e. your computer name) either "automatically via DCHP" or "manually". Choose to do it manually, otherwise your PC will be called something like 'DXYZ11244QWERTY52001ASPACEODE%%Y'.