Quote Originally Posted by evorob
1) Can someone give me a direct link too the hardrive install as every link ive seen so far seems to be the live disc which i already have.
The live CD and the hard drive install CD are one and the same. You have to run the "knoppix-installer" command as root from a bash prompt.

Quote Originally Posted by evorob
2) I`m on XP home, can someone tell me if in the set-up for the knoppix hard drive installation it automatically partitions your harddrive as i want too keep XP and run 2 OS`s pref with the choice of which OS i want too run.
You'll have to repartition your hard drive yourself. I think the Knoppix installer script puts you into a program called QTParted, which (says it) will allow you to resize an NTFS partition (I haven't tried). Be sure to back everything up before you do (I know, it's something everyone says but no one does). Knoppix installs the LILO (LInux LOader) boot loader, which can allow you to choose between XP and Linux when you boot. There are many other ways to dual-boot. Agan, be sure to back up everything before installing a boot loader.

Quote Originally Posted by evorob
3) I`m far from being a computer expert so is the hard drive installation fairly easy too set-up for a newbie and in your oppinions would you say knoppix is a good starting point for someone who is new too linux and wants too learn it.
Not really, no. Knoppix's installer expects you to know what you're doing, which presupposes some prior knowlege of Linux. (Not that it's that difficult, but still...)

For a beginner, I'd recommend getting a book about Red Hat Fedora that comes with the distro on CD. There are a couple of good ones:
  • Sams Teach Yourself Red Hat Linux Fedora in 24 Hours (Sams)
  • Learning Red Hat Enterprise Linux & Fedora, 4th Edition (O'Reilly)

These will a) give you a fairly painless installation experience, and b) teach you about Linux from the ground up. Then you can come back to Knoppix with more confidence. (Personally, I like Knoppix a whole lot more than Red Hat Fedora. But the book-length tutorials are great.)

Although you probably still will want to run QTParted from the live Knoppix CD to repartition your hard drive, no matter which way you go. (I don't think Fedora's installer allows you to resize NTFS partitions. Also, there've been numerous reports of Fedora somehow messing up a dual-boot and locking people out of WinXP.)

Just my 2 cents.