[li]You have a 40 GB hard disk with only one partition “C”. This is the scenario in many laptops. The other partition may be a back up or EISA partition. Now you’re in for a rough ride. If you have made the back up CDs and DVDs from the EISA partition using the tool the vendor has provided you, you can delete the EISA partiton but you will have to first backup your data, delete all partition using a partition manager like GParted, make a small C partiton, say 20 GB, with the ntfs filesystem using GParted, and then boot from your recovery cd/dvd and restore the system.
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Resizing Partitions is something I do not recommend with any tool unless you have uninterrupted power supply in your part of the country/world or a power back up solution that lasts for a few hours.
Hardware check
With the advances in Linux and the new kernels this step may not be necessary, but will help you in troubleshooting later if required.
Click on Start->Control Panel->Performance and Maintainance->System
Click on the Hardware tab->Device Manager button
Make a note of the model numbers of your monitor, graphics card (display adapter), and any other devices.
Installing Linux
You are now going to install linux to the empty space on your hard disk that you prepared in the earlier step. Linux by itself is not a single monolithic entity unlike some popular operating systems. It is very much a collaborative effort. It consists of a core (also called a kernel) on which the entire system is built on an runs. Linux is modular. As you become more experienced, you will realise that you can add and remove modules depending on your requirement and create a highly customised system, to make a long story short - NO **** is forced down your throat. No hidden agandas, no long cryptic EULAs (the thingy which you blindly scroll down and click “I agree” without batting an eyelid), and no leash up your arse (pardon the bad language but that’s exactly how I feel).
So let’s get started !!
The first step in installing any linux distro involves booting from a live media, usually a CD or DVD.
SUSE CDs and DVDs can be downloaded from openSUSE.org
To boot from the cd or dvd your bios should have it as the first boot device. Alternatively some bios allow you to select the boot device. The key used for this varies with different manufacturers. To see if your bios has a boot device select menu please refer the manual of your motherboard or take help from a more experienced friend.
I suggest you try the following - insert the cd or dvd and start your pc. If your pc boots too fast simply restart windows with the cd or dvd in the drive and see what happens. Very often the optical drive would have been set as the first boot device and the system boots from the cd automatically. If it still goes to windows and refuses to boot from your cd or dvd then you will have to adjust your bios settings or search for a boot menu as I described earlier.
OpenSUSE Installation
If your pc boots successfully from your OpenSUSE DVD you will see this screen
