Thank you very much for the advice and support. I already did the resizing and everything worked perfectly. Although the extra partition is currently unformatted and I'm going to wait till I'm comfortable with mint then I want to try Ubuntu in the unformatted space. I hit ESC during PC boot up sequence to ascess my boot menu (I'm guessing it was factory installed because I never installed one) and selected USB SanDisk and then Mint loads it's own boot menu where I select boot MINT. However, the factory boot menu only displays hardware and the linux menu (probablly because that's the only thing on the SanDisk) only displays Mint and default boot (windows I'm guessing). If I install EasyBCD and select my hard drive from my factory boot menu will EasyBCD allow me to select which partition to boot from? if I were to install Ubuntu in the unformatted space? In the mean time I'll keep fooling with mint and I'll be back with more questions. Thanks again! =)

[EDIT] I am currently using mint on my USB. I seem to be able to do everything I can do in wondows (media, web browsing, etc.) but, when i first boot i get a notification that says ...Local folders: maildir "for collection" is invalid... what is this what does it mean??? Also, Nepomuk is disabled? what is this what does it mean? Also, how can I view my network traffic, is there an app for that? and what is a TOR? do i need one? where do i get it?? As always thanks![EDIT]

[EDIT] Tried to use KTorrent. Got a message saying you tried to download a magnet link try enabling DHT. The download showed in the running downloads but its going VERY slow 23b/s slow then stalling continuously. I don't think it's actually downloading at all. I went into the preferences and clicked use DHT to get additional peers. This had no affect other then saying DHT:0 nodes, 0 tasks in stead of DHT: off at the bottom of KTorrent. Thanks again![EDIT]

I have never used linux before, but have been a windows user for years. I want to try something new, and I know Linux is well liked, and free. I heard I can run linux while using windows from a USB Device. I bought a 16GB SanDisk, will this be suitable? And, which OS would be best fit for a USB and is easy to learn to use? I eventually want to have enough confidence in my use of linux to completely remove windows from my computer.

[EDIT] I decided to try Mint KDE. I watched a tutorial, and decided to use Universal USB Installer and installed mint to my usb but is this the actual OS? or is this to install on my hard drive? I have a 1TB hardrive i've split this into two partitions one 100gb(for windows) and one as 900 GB (for musc, movies, etc.) but both are already NTFS with files. Will partition wizard allow me to resize the 900 GB to 800 GB without loosing my already exsisting files? (creating 100GB free space) If it can I would try to install mint to the third partition.