Quote Originally Posted by mastergunner
Harry thanks for the instructions but still lost. Could you put the instructions into steps. Also what happens if I try to make it dual bootable but the hard drive is just one big partition what then? As for the internet download is that all I need for Debian and does it download and install by itself?
I'm confused by what you mean in saying you want dual boot but only one large partition. Dual boot implied multiple OSs, and each OS will usually have to be in it's own partition, so dual boot and only one partition are inconsistent. If you have Windows in one partition and unpartitioned space left on the disk then the install process will ask if you want to use the entire disk for Debian or just the empty space (and may give you other options as well including letting you manually partition to your hearts content). If you have multiple OSs on the disk the installer should set up the Grub boot manager so that it can boot any of them (just be sure to install the MS OS first, MS doesn't play well with others and will make life miserable if you install it second, but if you install it first and then a second OS like Linux, things work much better.

As to putting the instructions in steps, sorry I'm a bit too busy to write a entire tutorial on installing Debian right now, and I doubt if this is the right place to post one anyway. I do have some notes I made about a year ago, but the installer may have changed somewhat since then. I do expect that you can find some install information on the web if you search a little, or I find the best way to really learn is to try an install or two (I deliberately installed several times with different options just for the learning expeience).

Yea, if you have high speed access you should be able to just use the net-install iso to download and install everything, and then apt-get install any applications you wish (including all those included with Knoppix and many more).
Quote Originally Posted by mastergunner
Harry also with the net install do I burn it to cd and then boot up from the cd or what?
Yes, you got it, burn the net-install ISO, at slow speed, use a CDRW if you have one (since the current net-install CD will not be useful as soon as Etch becomes stable), everything else you need comes from the Internet.