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Contents 1 February 28 1.1 creating 3D objects 1.2 Typing speed over time 1.3 Weird MS Access problem 1.4 New name for iPod 1.5 USB battery pack 1.6 about drupal base website 1.7 Fast redirect 1.8 modular algorithm in javascript ? need source codes 1.9 Is my computer dead now? 1.10 LaTeX issue 1.11 Linux and Windows: both? 1.12 three 1.13 boot fom flash? 1.14 hack 1.15 Linux installation

[edit] February 28

[edit] creating 3D objects

I'm a member of an online forum, and one of the big projects over there is a RPG that everyone is collaborating on. The program is in it's very preliminay stages, and the leader has asked people to help create basic land objecs, such as boulders, trees, etc. I want to help but I have no previous knowledge of coding.

To be safe, I asked him what types of programs can be used he resonded as such (I don't know what any of it means):

"I can accept 3d graphics in any of the following formats:

.b3d

.x

.3ds

If you cannot produce 3d models in any of these formats, let me know and I'll see about converting."

Is it posible for some of you guys to write codes for objects and paste the code here, for me to send back to my forum? If this is impossible for some reason, or just a really large job, I don't want to inconvenince anybody. I'd appreciate any help, and am perfectly fine with crediting anyone who wants recognition for their work, if they so desire. --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 00:42, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I know that .3ds is the file format used in a program called 3D Studio Max. It's a pretty complex program. That .b3d might be Bryce, I'm not sure, but that's an easier program to use. Useight (talk) 00:54, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Whatever's easiest. Could somebody write a code for, say, a boulder, and paste it here? --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 01:05, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm fairly sure those are binary formats; you can't just "write a code" for it. 3ds has its own MIME type (application/x-3ds) so I doubt it's XML based. You'll need to actually get Bryce or 3D Studio Max, both extremely pricey applications, to contribute to the project. :D\=< (talk) 04:58, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

The format appears to also be supported by Blender (software) which is free. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 05:34, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

There is also Gmax which isn't supported anymore but you can still download, and is free, and should produce the .3ds format you need, or at least something the project leader can convert from. Good luck with your project!

Fake Edit: Also have a look at Milkshape which appears to have better community support, and looks a tad easier to use. TheGreatZorko (talk) 08:42, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Blender3D is free, and van export in .3ds. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.31.170.32 (talk) 22:23, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Typing speed over time

Have there been any studies into how much typing speed improves over time and with real-world practice? NeonMerlin 01:25, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Just my personal observations: when I first began using computers, I was unable to type very efficiently or accurately. This, however, all changed once I began using MSN Messenger to chat with my friends. This real-world practice of typing greatly improved my typing speed and accuracy. Acceptable (talk) 02:00, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I was looking at the keyboard to type until about 8th grade.. we had a stupid typing book we had to work through, which didn't help at all, but a few months later I just sort of realized that I didn't need to look at the keyboard to type and my typing speed shot up cause I didn't have to move my hands out of the way in between letters to look. Now I have terrible typing habits.. I hit y with my left index finger, don't keep my hands on the home row, but I type fast enough. :D\=< (talk) 04:15, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Real-world practice: from having to look for letters to over 300 cps within eight months, with proper training mind you. Helps in undercover situations when you have to type in the dark :) --Ouro (blah blah) 06:38, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Weird MS Access problem

I have a form in MS Access where clicking on one listbox will cause it to (in VBA) populate another listbox. The second listbox is pretty straightforward and is populated by just changing its Rowsource to the relevance SQL query based on the clicking of the first box. The second list box has six columns; mostly of text data.

It works fine on my machine. But for reasons I can't figure out, on my colleague's machine (which I don't have physical access to -- I work on the other side of the country from him), the list box mysteriously doesn't populate all of the six columns, only the first three.

I've had him run a few special debug versions; when I do a DLOOKUP on the same data it works fine, so I assume it's not a problem with the data itself. When I have Access go through each entry in his listbox and check the .Column property, it says it has all of the data. The SQL is being formed correctly, and the other four columns come in just fine.

And yet -- the data doesn't display on his! (I've seen screenshots.) Why on earth would this be? It doesn't give him any sort of error and there's no reason I can think of that this would be the case. He's using the same version of the software on the same OS.

Any ideas? I've tried populating the listbox using non-SQL methods (i.e. making it a Value list and then drawing the data out of the tables in the VBA and populating it) but that won't work for different reasons (too much data -- it overloads the Rowsource property). --98.217.18.109 (talk) 02:22, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Could this be caused by your colleagues machine having a different screen resolution to yours, or using "large fonts" vs "small fonts" in display properties? If this is the case, it should be simple for you to set your screen properties to match. Are you running the same versions of Access and Windows?-gadfium 08:38, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Hmm, yes, I think he has a different (smaller) resolution. I'll try playing with the font size and see if that helps. What's weird is that some of the columns show up fine, while others don't. They're all the same font. I'm pretty sure we're running the same versions of Access and Windows. There's a slight chance his is Access 2003 while mine is Access 2002, but I don't think that should affect something like this. --98.217.18.109 (talk) 16:19, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] New name for iPod

I just purchased a used iPod Touch 8gb from my friend. However, in the iPod, it has his name in it "Wesley's iPod" inside the software thingy. Is there anyway I can rename the iPod without having to restore it? Because he has downloaded some songs on there for me and I dont wanna lose them all. THANKS! Hustle (talk) 03:12, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

If you single click on the iPods name within iTunes after having it selected in the menu bar you should be able to rename it. Alternativly you could use another program to back up the contents of the iPod to your hard drive, but this would probably be illegal and ethically I can't tell you how to do it. TheGreatZorko (talk) 08:49, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, backing up is very important. I don't see any ethical dilemma on backing up any stuff that someone already owns. Kushal 03:42, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] USB battery pack

USB ports can transfer electric current, thus enabling them to power peripheral devices. However, can a computer receive "power" from a USB peripheral, such as a "USB battery pack"? Acceptable (talk) 04:33, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I would assume that the computer would have to be physically wired to accept power from the USB port. Kushal 05:24, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

USB ports cannot recive or supply that much power all at once. Certainly not enough to power a computer. Firewire MIGHT be able to do it since it can carry a lot of power, but USB cannot. EDIT -According to the Firewire article it looks as though even firewire can only carry 45 watts, which isn't enough to power a desktop PC.TheGreatZorko (talk) 08:55, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Think about it, if all the power could go into powering whatever is plugged in to USB, how could the "host" computer receive enough power to stay on? That could introduce a paradox where both computers are plugged into each other and powering each other. Reminds me of IT professionals that plug an extension cord into itself. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 20:57, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

You remind me of the 127.0.0.1 loop. Kushal 21:28, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

V=I/R Mac Davis (talk) 23:00, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Some computers can. My pocket PC for example takes it's charge from an AC USB interfaced powerpack, and can also take power from a battery pack, via the usb interface.

[edit] about drupal base website

i want to build a website where top and leftside navigational bars are different. for that what to do.please tell me the steps.

I use frames, although somebody will probably shout at me for it ;). (Frames are a terribly outdated approach to web page layouts but for no particular reason I'm loathe to update my markup skills). --Joe^Talk_Work 12:46, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

You can use tables for your page layout. That is easy if you just know HTML. However, the proper method is to make each nav bar a div. Give an ID to each div. Then, use CSS to position the divs exactly where you want them. Of course, you'll spend a lot of time battling inconsistencies between browsers to get something mostly usable. -- kainaw™ 13:13, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fast redirect

Is there an easy way to have an url on my website redirect to another url, which would be seamless like tinyurl works. I have almost know knowlege of HTML. Would it be possible to get some simple code where I could just paste into notepad, replace a couple of lines and then place in the root directory of my ftp, so the address would be something like mywebsite.whatever/redirect.html If it isn't possible what is the easiest way to achive what I want? TheGreatZorko (talk) 08:53, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

If you use PHP, this should work:

<?php header("Location: http://somewhere.dot.com/page.html"); ?>

If you use Perl or ASP, use a similar command to send Location header.

If you need pure HTML, then read about Meta refresh and why you shouldn't use it. But it won't be seamless.

--grawity ^{talk / PGP} 10:42, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't know much about PHP. Will placing this code in a blank html file then putting it in my root directory work? TheGreatZorko (talk) 11:42, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Nope. Also, tinyurl isn't seamless- if you want REAL seamless then redirect using the webserver (the apache rewriteengine or nothing in suck IIS) so it's actually indistinguishable from the end page. You can also redirect with DNS entries but that's bleh :D\=< (talk) 12:31, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

You could also use JavaScript: document.location.href = 'http://example.com/newpage.htm';, though this has the same kind of disadvantages as Meta refresh, and would not work at all for people who have JavaScript disabled. The simplest solution is probably Meta Refresh with a delay of 5-10 seconds and a polite message telling people they're about to be redirected and a suggestion to update any bookmarks to the old address. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 17:39, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

If you put the PHP code into a file with the extension .php, it might work automatically, as many commercial servers automatically have PHP installed on them. But it probably won't work if you give it a plain .html file name, as most servers are not (for performance and security reasons) set up to process .html extensions as PHP files.--98.217.18.109 (talk) 01:59, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

If you can only use html, you can add this code to the top of the html (inside the <head>...</head> tags, if possible). But it's better to use the PHP version if you possibly can.

<META http-equiv="refresh" content="1;URL=http://www.example.com/">

--h2g2bob (talk) 00:11, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] modular algorithm in javascript ? need source codes

how can i solve this problem with using javascript?

[ x1= a (mod 100) , a= 20 (mod 37) ]

[ x2= b (mod 100) , b= 15 (mod 37) ]

[ x3= c (mod 100) , c= 18 (mod 37) ]

must be ; x2= a.k + y (mod100)

and

x3= b.k + y (mod100)

i need find b and c.. thank you best regards.. Altan B. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.98.230.220 (talk) 10:15, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

This appears to me to just be a convoluted form of the Chinese remainder theorem. Do you understand that theorem? If not, writing a program to solve it will be difficult regardless of the programming language. -- kainaw™ 13:11, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

You use the % operator to do modulus math in Javascript, if that helps. 10 % 3 = 1, etc. --98.217.18.109 (talk) 16:17, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

There are really two questions here: (1) devise an algorithm to solve the problem; and (2) implement this algorithm in JS. It's not clear which of these you need help with. In any case, this looks suspiciously like a homework problem: see the notice at the top of the page about our policy on answering such questions. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 17:43, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

im making a machine. it is not homework, i need solve this problem. dont abuse on someone and be careful before do it! Altan B. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.98.230.220 (talk) 18:02, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Is my computer dead now?

I'm not an expert at these things, so I just realized I destroyed my hard drive's file system when I was to do it for an usb-stick. I'm very happy now. Anyway, I still have Puppy Linux running, but it was installed on the same hard drive (along with Windows XP). So:

• Are all my Windows files now gone?
• Can I just reformat back to ntfs without losing anything?
• Can I turn power off and boot Windows?

In case anybody cares, here are the first 512 bytes:

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

00000000  33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C FB 50 07 50 1F FC BE 1B 7C  3ĄˇŠ¼.|ūP.P.ü¾.|
00000010  BF 1B 06 50 57 B9 E5 01 F3 A4 CB BD BE 07 B1 04  æ..PW¹å.ó¤Ė½¾.±.
00000020  38 6E 00 7C 09 75 13 83 C5 10 E2 F4 CD 18 8B F5  8n.|.u..Å.āōĶ.‹õ
00000030  83 C6 10 49 74 19 38 2C 74 F6 A0 B5 07 B4 07 8B  .Ę.It.8,tö µ.´.‹
00000040  F0 AC 3C 00 74 FC BB 07 00 B4 0E CD 10 EB F2 88  š¬<.tü»..´.Ķ.ėņ.
00000050  4E 10 E8 46 00 73 2A FE 46 10 80 7E 04 0B 74 0B  N.čF.s*žF.€~..t.
00000060  80 7E 04 0C 74 05 A0 B6 07 75 D2 80 46 02 06 83  €~..t. ¶.uŅ€F...
00000070  46 08 06 83 56 0A 00 E8 21 00 73 05 A0 B6 07 EB  F...V..č!.s. ¶.ė
00000080  BC 81 3E FE 7D 55 AA 74 0B 80 7E 10 00 74 C8 A0  ¼.>ž}UŖt.€~..tČ 
00000090  B7 07 EB A9 8B FC 1E 57 8B F5 CB BF 05 00 8A 56  ·.ė©‹ü.W‹õĖæ...V
000000A0  00 B4 08 CD 13 72 23 8A C1 24 3F 98 8A DE 8A FC  .´.Ķ.r#.Į$?..Ž.ü
000000B0  43 F7 E3 8B D1 86 D6 B1 06 D2 EE 42 F7 E2 39 56  C÷ć‹Ń†Ö±.ŅīB÷ā9V
000000C0  0A 77 23 72 05 39 46 08 73 1C B8 01 02 BB 00 7C  .w#r.9F.s.ø..».|
000000D0  8B 4E 02 8B 56 00 CD 13 73 51 4F 74 4E 32 E4 8A  ‹N.‹V.Ķ.sQOtN2ä.
000000E0  56 00 CD 13 EB E4 8A 56 00 60 BB AA 55 B4 41 CD  V.Ķ.ėä.V.`»ŖU´AĶ
000000F0  13 72 36 81 FB 55 AA 75 30 F6 C1 01 74 2B 61 60  .r6.ūUŖu0öĮ.t+a`
00000100  6A 00 6A 00 FF 76 0A FF 76 08 6A 00 68 00 7C 6A  j.j.˙v.˙v.j.h.|j
00000110  01 6A 10 B4 42 8B F4 CD 13 61 61 73 0E 4F 74 0B  .j.´B‹ōĶ.aas.Ot.
00000120  32 E4 8A 56 00 CD 13 EB D6 61 F9 C3 49 6E 76 61  2ä.V.Ķ.ėÖałĆInva
00000130  6C 69 64 20 70 61 72 74 69 74 69 6F 6E 20 74 61  lid partition ta
00000140  62 6C 65 00 45 72 72 6F 72 20 6C 6F 61 64 69 6E  ble.Error loadin
00000150  67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74  g operating syst
00000160  65 6D 00 4D 69 73 73 69 6E 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61  em.Missing opera
00000170  74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 65 6D 00 00 00 00 00  ting system.....
00000180  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
00000190  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
000001A0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
000001B0  00 00 00 00 00 2C 44 63 1D 5C 0F 6F 00 00 00 00  .....,Dc.\.o....
000001C0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
000001D0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
000001E0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
000001F0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA  ..............UŖ

Thank you. --212.149.216.233 (talk) 12:36, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

What exactly you did, step by step? And no, you can't re-format your disk.

(I changed "512 bytes" to a more readable version.) --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 15:36, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I opened Gparted, then I just simply chose "Delete" and applied the operation. --212.149.216.233 (talk) 15:43, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Solved, Solved, Solved. After some research I burnt this Gparted LiveCD on DVD and TestDisk did the job. --212.149.216.233 (talk) 17:48, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Nice job. Useight (talk) 18:19, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] LaTeX issue

(moved to WP:Reference desk/Humanities#LaTeX issue)

[edit] Linux and Windows: both?

I was thinking that the mainspace on the enWiki wouldn't have the answer to this question (what do you know, they didn't), but I was wondering, if I install Linux on my Windows XP computer, will I be able to switch back and forth between them? i.e., if I wanted to use Linux one day, then the next, I wanted to use XP, would that work? Or am I just getting my hopes up for nothing? flaminglawyer^c 22:25, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

That's called a dual boot and look, there's a mainspace article! --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 22:35, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Dual boot allows you to boot one or the other. Another option is virtualization. You can use a virtual system (like VMWare) to run Linux inside of Windows without any dual booting or partitioning. The drawback is that Linux will run much slower under virtualization than it will if it was booted directly. Yet another option is a live CD, such as Knoppix that doesn't install anywhere on your harddrive. -- kainaw™ 00:25, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Much slower? I thought the performance hit associated with virtualization was typically only a few percent. Friday (talk) 17:10, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

It isn't just the virtualization. Usually, virtualization reserves ram for the embedded OS. It doesn't get ALL the ram, only a small chunk of it. With less ram and rarely a direct connection to the harddrive, things slow down. -- kainaw™ 18:54, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

A few percent? Snort :D\=< (talk) 21:25, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes. Vmware for example claims to measure a 3% or so slowdown on integer operations and more like 9% on floating point. Do you have some reason to believe otherwise? Friday (talk) 15:12, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

You can also run the Linux kernel along with Windows, giving you the ability to run Windows applications side by side with Linux applications. See andLinux — Kieff | Talk 06:55, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] three

1.can one rip photos from a pdf?how 2.there was a trivia question that one cant create a folder and give it a certain name in windows.i cant remember but am sure its true.what is it 3.my cd drive is jamed the led thingy is working but the cd drive does not open the cd.how can i open it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.220.113.117 (talk) 22:43, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

1. If you have PDF editing software (Adobe Acrobat, Foxit PDF Editor, et al), then it should be a matter of right-click and copy/save. If not, you can always use Print Screen.
2. Perhaps C:\con\con?
3. Sounds like something's stuck inside. I don't know if it's possible to pry off the top, you might have to get a new one. Xenon⁵⁴ 22:49, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Actually, it is possible to create such folders in Windows NT (NT = XP/2000/2003/Vista). (mkdir \\.\C:\con\con\nul\aux). But in Windows 9x, C:\con\con (or any other device) will crash the system. --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 09:54, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

1.Actually, even Adobe Reader can select photos from a PDF so that they can be pasted into an image editor. Make sure you have the latest version. It usually works just fine. --98.217.18.109 (talk) 23:03, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

3. Almost all CD, DVD (tray opening) and floppy drives have a tiny pinhole in the front. Stick a straightened-out paperclip in the hole - it should pop the drive open (or in the case of a floppy, pop the disk out). Don't jam it in too hard, otherwise you may damage the mechanism.

Unless you are unfortunate enough to be on a macbook (not pro).Kushal 18:55, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

If, on the other hand, you can add/remove a CD from the drive, but can't access it on the computer: do you mean it is not starting automatically? Can you access the disk by right-clicking and choosing "Explore"? Is the LED flashing orange? Green?--Kateshortforbob 23:58, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] boot fom flash?

how the hell does one boot from a flash?i bought my pc last year and i cant see that option from bios.i alos have never seen any mother board that supports that,coz i have a knoppix iso file and i want to install it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.220.113.117 (talk) 22:57, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

It's possible. Basically what you are doing is burning the iso to a CD, partitioning your USB stick from the command line, and then copying necessary files over to your stick. You can then use Knoppix Persistent to save your settings to the stick and have then applied when you boot. Good luck! Xenon⁵⁴ 23:28, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

There must be a more efficient way. Why would I want to burn something onto a CD just to copy it to a flash drive? I know CDs are cheap but still, that's wasting a CD (unless I use it, or keep it as a back up). Kushal 18:54, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

You can mount the knopix iso and copy the files from there, then you will need to run syslinux on the usb stick.

something like mount <iso_image> /mnt -o loop=/dev/loop0 would mount the iso on /mnt under redhat or a derivitive of redhat. The name of the loopback may iffer on other distros. Then syslinux -s <disk_dev> should make it bootable.

[edit] hack

okay in our class we have our computers networked and our pcs are named from agent 1-agent 7.am agent two the guy who always has the coolest stuff(new movies e.t.c) in his machine is agent one.sometimes the guy cuts someone off and u cant get into his machine.how can i hack into his pc,just to show him i can.we are all interconnected to a server.and previledges are set on who has access to what.i just want to get into my classmates machine —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.220.113.117 (talk) 23:03, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Without knowing more about what kinds of machines they are, what operating systems they are running, and what type of networking is involved, it's a bit hard to give any useful answers to such a noble cause. Sorry. But in general, the easiest way to "hack into his machine" is to trick him into installing a "remote system administration" tool like Back Orifice, which will give you access, though I should note that it's almost certainly against your school rules, and potentially against the law. If he complained, you'd probably get your computer privileges revoked altogether, I'm betting. --98.217.18.109 (talk) 23:20, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

BackOrifice is lame. Use SubSeven or Beast. (mail me for more info) --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 10:15, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm old skool, d00d. (Actually, I just haven't been paying attention to that sort of thing for a decade, it turns out! ;-) --98.217.18.109 (talk) 17:06, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Linux installation

Can someone give me step-by-step instructions for installing and running Linux on a WinXP comp; I seriously need some help. I understand that something called a "dual-booter" (dual boot) is needed, which I have found (GNU GRUB) and downloaded, but can't figure out how to use. I have downloaded the Freespire version of Linux, but can't figure out how to use it either. Can someone please help? (!) flaminglawyer^c 23:32, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

And, please, I will not be able to get on Wikipedia again for an hour or two, so don't ask any questions of me, or any comments at all that would require a response. Thanks so much, flaminglawyer^c 23:35, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

See this. You shouldn't have to download GRUB separately, it should come with the OS. Tips: be extra careful when partitioning - choose "Advanced install" at the partitioner and follow the instructions at the bottom of the "INSTALL Freespire on this computer's hard drive" section. Also, don't touch any NTFS partitions whilst partitioning. Good luck! Xenon⁵⁴ 23:42, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

You should resize your NTFS partition first with a gparted livecd to give the installer something to work with.. I wouldn't trust the "freespire" installer to do it :D\=< (talk) 23:44, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

There's always the completely ignored warning: Back up your important files before partitioning your harddrive. As for "installing" linux, you can opt to try out something like Knoppix. It doesn't affect your hard drive because it runs completely off a CD (or a USB stick if you like). It allows you to mess around with Linux a bit and decide if you want to go through the trouble if partitioning your drive and installing it. -- kainaw™ 00:20, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, thanks to you all. I personally found Xenon's advice to be the helpful-est, so I'll follow it first. Froth, I knew absolutely nothing about what you were talking about; you lost me at "NFTS partitioning." Anyway, I'll give it a try. Thanks! flaminglawyer^c 00:45, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Heed Kainaw's advice. Backup anything important before you mess around with partitioning software (which the installer is going to do if you want to keep your existing XP install). -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:31, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

---unless you live on the edge :D\=< (talk) 02:02, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

If you really want to live on the edge, you'd take apart your hard drive and put it back together - knowing that if you such much as breathe all your precious data will be gone. But yes, back up everything. Then make a back up of that back up. Keep one near you, and one in another country if you can. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 20:28, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't know if this is what you wanted, but at least it worked for me. --212.149.216.233 (talk) 18:53, 2 March 2008 (UTC)