help, i'm really a bit out of my depth!

[urbantuckerman]

Hi, and thanks for reading this! I've just been given an old p3 sony laptop so i thought i'd give linux a go at last. downloaded zenwalk (chosen more or less at random) and finally worked out how to burn iso image and get to the setup screen (2hrs ). Trouble is that although i understand in principle what partitioning the hard drive means i'm still stuck! do i need to reformat the machine's hard drive to get rid of windows before i start? then what? I've been reading around forums and elsewhere but it all seems to assume a bit more savvy than i've got! Any help greatly appreciated!!! thanks

[MikeTbob]

Hi and welcome to Linuxforums.
IF the hard drive is large enough, you can leave Windows on it and install Linux next to it, this is called a dual boot.
If you start the installer it should find the windows partition and you can either delete it or leave it. If I were you, I would leave it, until you are more comfortable with Linux.

[urbantuckerman]

thanks for replying so quickly! actually i've got 2 laptops so i reckon i can zap windows safely! do i use partition editor in setup or autopartition facility?

[rokytnji]

Whats the Windows Version installed on this laptop

[rokytnji]

If you want to wipe windows just choose the auto partion facility.

http://manual.zenwalk.org/en/Install...p_by_step.html

[urbantuckerman]

hi, thanks for helping! its xp.

[urbantuckerman]

autopartition it is, erm i take it i want to partition the sda disk not the ram disk

[rokytnji]

Yep, sda is your hardrive.

[urbantuckerman]

thanks! it all seems to be going swimmingly now! back to the forums for me to try to get my wifi card working and then there'll be no stopping me, probably. thanks again to you both!