First of all, does the hard drive need to be formatted and partitions and an OS already installed? Or can Red Hat run by itself on the laptop? I am having trouble getting started and says it can't find the files needed to load? Any ideas?? I plan on putting Vista and Linux on the same drive, but does it matter which one I install first?

thanks for all your help!!

Yes, Install your Windows OS first.

In the Linux world, the tongue-in-cheek "rule" is to install the "oldest and slowest" first.

How is it that you selected Red Hat.
That's just fine, but I'm wondering what brought you to that selection.
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I run openSUSE 11.1.
It handles the partitioning and formatting via an automated gui.
Ubunto may also provide ease of installation for a new user.
I don't know how Red Hat handles the pre-installation features.

The machine will very likely run with only Linux installed.
But remember, if you intend to dual-boot, you should install Microsoft first.

Best Regards

Thanks Doug fo rthe reply, I chose redHat becasue a friend recommended it and he really enjoys his RedHat Linux, I will add my Windows OS to the hard drive first and then try linux and see what happens, thanks for the help

Brian

This post has been edited by Brian75: Oct 10 2009, 10:59 AM