"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
Try one of the "Live CD" linux distributions. Ubuntu has a great one.
Stick the CD in your drive, reboot the system, you're in a linux system
running off the CD. You can see the state of the OS, without doing a
thing to your Windows installation. Take out the CD, reboot again, and
you're back to your untouched Windows installation.

I have tried downloading and booting a linux iso CD file but my computer
seems to ignore it (I can boot however from the CD with a Windows boot
disk). My computer is about 10 years old and I wonder if the bios does not
recognize iso extensions (or some such). Would anyone know what the problem
might be??

I'd like to try the Ubuntu linux but don't really want to do a three hour or
so download unless the file is going to work.

Laurie Forbes