I'm no linux pro (far from it) but have experimented with it for about a year. I have SuSe 9.1 pers. running on an older Dell P2 & have tried several LiveCD's. I think at this point I'd like to try a full install of Knoppix on my newer machine, a self-made P4 3.2GHz H/T with three drives. I've just installed the 3rd, a 200GB Maxtor DiamondMax+10 which is hooked up to an Intel D865GBF-PERL mobo via a SIIG Ultra ATA/133 PCI card. Using Vcom System Commander I have set up 4 Windows XP Pro installs (100gig total) 80 Gb I want to leave for data storage & future OS's but in the last 20GB's I would like to install Knoppix. I have run the LiveCD version (3.8.1) on both units & it works fine. My question is: Should I allow Vcom to partion the 20gig sector (claims it can, would format 19.5GB EXT3, 500MB linux-swap) or just leave the last 20gigs unformatted & have Knoppix choose how to do it? In addition I'm not clear about the difference between what I'm seeing now with this liveCD version and what the resulting Debian install will be. The main reason I like the LiveCD is it's easier for a novice such as myself to accomplish things. What I don't like is that I can't really save or download anything since it has no permissions to access the drive it's running on (unless there is a way to set that up).

Any advice on these questions would most certainly be appreciated.