Congratulations you didn’t ruin your computer.

I am greedy and I like to fiddle. These two things work hand in hand when you A: have an almost uncapped broadband connection and absolutely no guilt or shame in pirating software B: have a friend who has bits of computers he doesn't want that you can get away with stealing. C: have a huge amount of work to do and thus could really do with a distraction.

So I decided to get myself a new operating system. I had a choice:

Win XP Pro SP3 (the boring option, only really want it cause then I can play railroad 2)

Linux of which I have openSUSE, Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04

So I have spent approximately 4 hours fiddling inside my computer, pulling wires around, scratching my head, and browsing PC forums.

The results: I have gone from having nothing. To having more of nothing,

BUT, the important thing is that in my attempt to install each of these twice I managed not to ruin my computer, which is a good thing because I cleverly decided not to back up an of my dissertation or pictures or anything. So the points stand as follows: Luke 1 Evil computer 0

However, I still only have vista, and it is very annoying, uses lots of resources, doesn't play my fav games, takes ages to load, and many many other things.

Also I have discovered a new thing I like: While installing a (very kindly) loaned hard-drive, I picked it up (it was warm and pleasant to the touch) and as it was whirring and clicking it felt very nice in my hand. Almost like a small warm animal (possibly a hamster or gerbil equivalent) was nestling into my mitts. Anyway, I thought I would share with you this piece of my life.

If anyone has any idea how to install Linux or WinXP onto a separate hardrive and run 2 OSes on my computer then please let me know. So far all the info I have found has been rubbish.