Knoppix to the rescue !!!!!!!!!!!!
get your self a knoppix cd image from
http://knoppix.org and burn the iso to a cd.
then boot this cd.
in the main menu is aprogram called "qt-parted" its a partiton tool.
shrink your current windows partiton to make space for new parttions.
then, aswell as your windows partiton, you will need the following partitons...
1 boot partiton (10 - 20 megabytes)
1 swap partiton (linux uses a partiton as swap instead of a file, which severely reduces disk framgmentation) (i recomend 512megs to 1Gig)
1 partiton for every OS you want to install.
lets say u want 3 OS's, windows, linux, and macOSX, you will need 5 partitons.
next, download a Linux install CD, and boot that...
i recomnd the following free newbie friendly distro's of linux
http://fedora.redhat.com (a distro based on redhat)
http://suse.com (a distro by novel)
http://mandrake.org (great distro, stable, and easy to use)
none of those distro's are the fastest or most powerfull linux distro's but they are the easyest to use.
for an easy to use NON free distro, use www.xandros.com
find more at distrowatch.com
when installing linux it asks if it should auto-partiton your dirve, slects NO, and manually partiton.
make sure you select your 10meg partiton as the boot partion, and your 500 meg partiton as swap... then pick one of the free unused partitons as root.
install as normal.
tadaaaa.... you have a dual boot windows/linux system, and your windows partiton is still in working order, no need to tre-install.
for more help, goto www.linuxquestions.org
to install MacOSX, you will need the emulator called PearPC (which runs ontiop of linux)
but thats anouther tutorial.
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