New to linux\knoppix makin dual boot xp\knoppix on 2 hdrives

[malaire]

First, I'm not 100% sure that having a clone of Windows XP installation allways allows you to get back to the original state, so what I'm suggesting here might not be 100% safe.

If you are truly Linux newbie, and don't know much about partitioning or installing Linux, then I'd suggest that you

1. Remove your current 100 GB hd and put it somewhere safe.
2. Install only the new empty 250GB hd into the computer.
3. Use your WindowsXP recovery-CDs to install XP to that hd.
4. Use GParted LiveCD from http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php (30MB) to shrink the XP partition.
5. Install Knoppix into the empty space.
6. Experiment with Knoppix.

This procedure keeps your original hd completely untouched and allows you to experiment with Knoppix.
If something goes wrong, you can remove the 250GB hd and install the 100GB hd back. (But note that I'm not 100% sure that it still works, so there can be some risk even with this setup.)

And if this all works, you can later consider trying something different, like installing Knoppix to the original 100GB harddrive (after shrinking the XP partition) and using the 250GB hd for data.

And then to your questions:

2 Is it possible to find a program that is freeware that will let me make a copy or a clone of all of the first drive including the xp operating system onto the second? So if anything goes wrong allow me to use that to restore windows xp to to the pre knoppix installation state. This first part is for safety.

I don't know about that.

3 this one ties in with number 2 after I do that I would like to repartition the first drive(the 100 gig one that xp came with) and see if I cant shrink the xp partition. Again that is why want to clone the first drive for safety sake if something should go wrong. I think I know how to do the shuffling but I need the tools and advice to do it right and not mess up. I also to make this drive the operating system drive and the second one the data storage drive.

For partitioning, I suggest using GParted LiveCD from http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php (30MB)
I believe this to be safe, but I havn't tried this. There are people who claim this to be unsafe. Having backup is recommended if you have any important data on the hd.

4 wich leads me to the question of partitioning. Is it possible to have both windows and linnux partitions on the same hd? Will it cause any conflicts? I if question number 2 is not possible. I want to make sure windows does not get wrecked because I use xp to get onto the internet.

It's possible and won't cause any conflicts if done correctly. Most Linux installation-programs are able to automatically setup this so that when you boot, you can choose whether to boot windows or linux. I don't know if Knoppix-installer does this as I havn't used it.

If the installer doesn't do this automatically, then you might be left with a situation where you can boot Knoppix but not WindowsXP. That can be fixed manually, but needs some knowledge on how to setup the double-boot. (But if you can't get AOL to work on Knoppix, you can't ask help from Internet, and you are left with a situation where you can't use WindowsXP at all.)

Also, one possible problem is that writing to NTFS-partitions from Linux doesn't allways work, so you might consider having an additional FAT32-partition which is used to transfer data between WindowsXP and Knoppix. (Both WindowsXP and Knoppix can use FAT32-partitions.)

5 I have AOL and I was reading that knoppix does not work with it. Is there an emmulator that would let me run it on knoppix?

Sometime ago I tried helping an another user to use AOL in Knoppix and it didn't work. I don't know more about this.
(The thread is http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24121 if you want to read it.)

I think this might be your biggest problem. If you can connect to Internet only with AOL, and you want to continue using AOL, then this might be the reason why you can't switch from Windows to Linux.