confused newb

[requiredfield]

Ok, so I d/led the notebook version, and wrote it to my 4 gig flash drive. Well, I had 3 gigs free on it, but now it appears that all of the other stuff I had on my flash drive is gone (luckily I backed it up just before), and my 4 gig flash drive is now a 1 gig flash drive...? (According to the properties tab)

So, I would like to demo Linux before installing, but I don't want to lose, well, everything on my hard disk. From what I've heard of Mepis, you have a chance to demo it before installation (from Dotto Tech on youtube), is this the same with ubuntu? Will I lose my whole hdd if I boot via my flash drive?

Thanks.

[blckpythn]

you will not lose anything on your hdd by booting on your flash drive, so long as you don't choose to install after you've booted

[ad_267]

I'm not sure about exactly how you installed Ubuntu to your flash drive, but it's likely the whole file system had to be replaced to make it bootable, so I'm not surprised all the other data was wiped off it.

Again, I haven't used the USB, only the bootable CD, but you definitely shouldn't lose any data by booting from the USB and if it is like the live CD then yes you can try out Ubuntu without affecting your existing Windows installation.