do i need a...

"You need a second *partition* to install a second operating system."

That's not exactly true any more. Most of the "Live CD" type distributions support a configuration called "poor man's install." You copy the CD image file into your MS-windows file system. Then you can boot with the Live CD but run the system from the image on the hard drive.

Most Live CDs support a "persistent home directory," where you put your desktop and personal files in a file system on a pen drive. If you combine those two, you can do just fine without *really* installing. The downside is it's rather difficult to support software that wasn't preinstalled on the Live CD. When the next version of the Live CD comes out, you just replace the image file. The upside is you can switch to a different Live CD without impacting your persistent home very much. Switch from Knoppix to Kubuntu or Mepis and keep your desktop.

Try to get your mind free of the Microsoft cage. Microsoft tells you how you have to set your system up. But you can set GNU/Linux up any way you can imagine.

I was mainly addressing the issue of not needing a *second* hard drive when installing to a hard drive. I guess I sacrificed too much detail for the sake of brevity.

The mind is pretty free here, but sometimes lazy. I've installed a couple distros on pen drives while using a persistent home directory. Heck, I've even installed Windows XP on a pen drive (oops, did I say that?).

The "poor man's install" is something I have yet to try, and I do like that idea. You've given me another project--thanks!

I meant to write that I've used Live CD's with persistent home directories. I also tried the pen drive installations, as mentioned.

My lifestyle trend of less sleep and more coffee needs to be reversed.

All you need is about 10 gig of free space. Ubuntu will create the second partition on the install. Just make sure you defrag Windows before the install.