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I have a laptop with XP. All the progems like power management and controls are specially for my laptop and only able to run on Windows. So I can't erase WinXP. My laptop doesn't have a floppy drive though. Yes, I was very cheap and got me a nice 3d card. That leaves me to install Linux on the hd or run it off the cd. I have WinXP on my hard drive and don't want to be having to partion it. That leaves unning Linux from the cd. Well, problem is that I will be overusing my cd drive running Linux everytime. So this is what I need.

I need a Linux version that just has one file on the cd, a kernel, and maybe some other stuff. The cd has to be small. When the pc boots, it loads up the kernel to memory allowing me to use the cd drive for other things. The reason is, that I would like to have all the files on my hd. Like cat and stuff. Like cygwin has a linux FS in c:\cygwin\. I just need a true Linux to do that to my NTFS. Any distros like that?

Is there a Linux that boots off my NTFS hd so I can put it in c:\Linux\ allowing me to leave windows?

I have mostly all the RPMS from my Mandrake installation. I don't want to redownload them. I just need a simple boot and kernel (up to date) that allows me to use Linux!! lol

I installed Mandrake by partioning the HD with partionMagic that way, I didn't fear losing my XP.

you can get some info abt custom made linux bootdisk at

http://tldp.net/HOWTO/Bootdisk-HOWTO
& http://www.bootdisk.com/linux.htm