Starting with Windows 16 Getting Started Guide Depending on how your computer hardware is configured, additional options are available to start the OpenLinux installation. Chapter 3 describes in detail how to continue OpenLinux installation from where this chapter leaves off. NOTE: If you don’t plan on sharing a hard disk between Win- dows and OpenLinux, you can skip to Chapter 3. One of the advantages of using the Windows installation is the hard disk parti- tioning software that is included with OpenLinux 2.3. By using this software, you can safely and easily share a hard disk with the Windows operating system you’re already using (assuming you have enough unused disk space), or prepare a new hard disk for installation of OpenLinux. CAUTION: You should back up your hard disk before using PartitionMagic or any disk partitioning software. While Par- titionMagic has been thoroughly tested to be safe and reli- able, other factors (such as power failures or hardware defects), can put your data at risk. Therefore, before using any utility that makes extensive changes to your hard disk, you should always back up your data. Additionally, for Windows 3.x/95/98/NT users, make sure no other applications are running and that no other users are attached to your workstation (in a peer-to-peer network) before running PartitionMagic. Starting the OpenLinux/Windows CD-ROM To explore and install OpenLinux from within Microsoft Windows, you need the “Windows Tools & Commercial Packages” CD-ROM. With that CD-ROM, fol- low the instructions below: 1. Start Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT. 2. Insert the “Windows Tools & Commercial Packages” CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive.