As the starter of this post, what mattweed9 suggested was the very first way that I tried a Linux distro out. I prepared for the installation as was instructed, it was said to be sure to defragment the disc prior to downloading. I followed Wubi's instructions, then proceeded for what was an 7 hour download. That's right, 7 hours, as no torrent was provided or suggested for this. It was almost a 700MB download. I got the program set up to go (it requires you to give a name and an optional password, after all was through a reboot was needed, I did so. Upon startup, it was there, a choice between Ubuntu and Windows XP. What mattweed9 has said is true, you can do this. But it left my disc 55% fragmented after I defragged once Ubuntu was installed. That's right, 55% fragmentation. About a week later, I could not boot into Windows, but I could boot into Ubuntu, even though it was installed inside of Windows. Figure that one out, I was "inside" Windows, but couldn't get into my Windows files. My boot ini. file became corrupted, then a hal.dll. file. Yet I could still boot into Ubuntu with no problem. I searched the Ubuntu forums, LinuxQuestions.org, and Windows BBS. The only straight answer that I got was from Windows BBS, where the member told me that my only hope was a reinstallation of Windows, and that if I wanted to try this Linux thing, to install onto a separate partition. Because I had a photo album that meant a lot to me, I tried as a last resort calling Microsoft. After being routed to the right person, she asked me to give a brief description of my problem. After explaining to her everything, she told me that she could attempt to walk me through at $79 an hour, but said in all honesty that a reinstall would be my only way out. At that point, I realized that my photo album was gone, one picture of them was my grandmother who died in a house fire. That was the only one that I had of her, I was only 11 when she died. But the lady from Microsoft did help me for no charge, she walked me through a reinstall since I had the disc, told me about leaving enough space for Ubuntu (or the OS of my choice) and gave me some wise words of caution. To never install another OS inside of Windows like that again, that she had dealt with countless others whose boot files were corrupted by this sort of install and told me that when I saw that my disc was 55% fragged, I should have uninstalled at that point. And in the future, to partition for each OS, regardless of brand. Realizing that she could have charged for her services but didn't, I thanked her and started my reinstall of Windows, which took the rest of the day. I left 25GB for a copy of Ubuntu that was given to me by a friend. Clifford, if you want to try out Linux, either partition or find a old system to do this with. It is meant for a temporary install to try it out. You don't even get the same performance from Ubuntu from this type of install. And you get NO assistance from Wubi or Ubuntu on this. You have to learn on your own. 12 years ago, I learned Windows in a short time (about 2 weeks) and had never touched a computer. This past summer and early fall, I spent 5 months trying to learn Ubuntu but failed. How in the hell are you going to learn when nothing's in sync. You post a question, you get 20 or more answers (yes, the community is large). You go through all those answers, took all day, and wake up the next day to do the same. Just to install a damn printer. Why can't they make their systems work with the OEM drivers? Windows does. Why does your external drive not work with Linux distros? It does with Windows. With Ubuntu and others when you plug it in it shows "160GB MEDIA", and that's all. You try to open it, the distro says the contents are unreadable. These are just a couple of the obstacles you will run into. I ordered my Windows 7 PC and because of the bad publicity of Vista and my Linux travels, I was actually almost shaking at the knees. But you know what? For the most part, I have it worked out. My printer and external drive works. In a little over two weeks I have nearly learned Win 7, in five months, all I could do was browse web pages, email and beg for help with Ubuntu. And I did give it an honest try, staying up many nights until 4 or 5 am. One shouldn't have to put in 16 hours a day just to learn a system. If any of you want to, go ahead. But don't say I didn't tell you so after you find out how hard it is. And this Wubi deal is not endorsed by Microsoft, and if your system is under warranty and you have no backup nor emergency repair disc, you're out of your money. This is Windows 7, not Win 2K or XP where you can buy OEM discs and block the download of the validation checker and run a bootleg system that will still get urgent and important security updates. The OEM discs I'm describing here are the ones that says on the package "For distribution with a new PC only". Anyway, a warning to all: Use Wubi at your own risk! It's only meant to evaluate the distro, not meant to be a permanent install.
