Ok, so I figured I'm probably never (ever) going to get a spare monitor so I can install linux and whatever on, so I got VMWare today. I started out by trying the iso of arch i downloaded about two months ago, but it was pretty much nothing but the bash shell and an occasional kernel panic. So I just dled ubuntu, and it seems like it's already installed (?wtf?) but there's an item on the desktop named install, so I clicked it. It seems on step 7 it wants me to partion my hard drive, but with windows being on it and all.. is that a good idea? i'm terribly afraid i'm going to just lose absolutely everything at the click of a button. IS IT SAFE?

Of course it is safe.  Just make sure you create a new partition, not overwrite old ones.

Ubuntu wasn't already installed. Ubuntu is Live CD only. The Live CD simply comes with the Installer application on its desktop. This way you can try it out without being forced into installing it.

It is safe to partition. VMWare basically has its own little "sand box" as you might call it. It will create files that store all the data related to an OS being used within it. So when you partition a hard drive for an OS inside of VMWare, it's not doing it to your actual hard drive, but to a virtual hard drive. This is also how many people test OS's that they're developing. Install/run it inside VMWare; this will assure you that you won't be damaging your hardware or causing some other serious problem.

Also, any OS running from within VMWare will not have access to the OS that is installed to your actual HD. So Ubuntu's Partition Manager that's running inside VMWare will only show the available hard drive disk that VMWare has virtually created.

This should answer everything you asked about.

PS. You did see the Ubuntu desktop within the VMWare window, correct?

[quote author=Yegg link=topic=16838.msg170647#msg170647 date=1183443649]
PS. You did see the Ubuntu desktop within the VMWare window, correct?
[/quote]
Indeed

Edit:

EEK!
[quote]
If you continue, the changes listed below will be written to the disks.
Otherwise, you will be able to make further changes manually.

WARNING: This will destroy all data on any partitions you have removed as
well as on the partitions that are going to be formatted.

The partition tables of the following devices are changed:
IDE1 master (hda)

The following partitions are going to be formatted:
partition #1 of IDE1 master (hda) as ext3
partition #5 of IDE1 master (hda) as swap
[/quote]

I thought i saw #1 somewhere before... so I looked at my boot.ini
and lo and behold....
[quote]
[boot loader]
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
timeout=10
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
[/quote]
Great. I have a feeling that VMWare would let me down and write over all my stuff, especially after what FrostWraith said.

edit 2:

[quote]
VMWare basically has its own little "sand box" as you might call it.
[/quote]
Is this the .vmdk file you're talking about? I hope it is :(

Whats wrong with your boot.ini? Looks fine to me...

[quote author=Falcon[anti-yL] link=topic=16838.msg170653#msg170653 date=1183471450]
Whats wrong with your boot.ini? Looks fine to me...
[/quote]
ext3 wants to format a partion at partion location #1, and that's where windows boots from.

[quote author=brew link=topic=16838.msg170662#msg170662 date=1183477972]
[quote author=Falcon[anti-yL] link=topic=16838.msg170653#msg170653 date=1183471450]
Whats wrong with your boot.ini? Looks fine to me...
[/quote]
ext3 wants to format a partion at partion location #1, and that's where windows boots from.
[/quote]

Repeat after me:
You are inside VMWare.  You are inside a virtual machine.  You are not touching your real hardware.  You are not touching your real disk partitions.

Read a manual. VMware is very easy and a great tool.

[quote author=K link=topic=16838.msg170664#msg170664 date=1183481684]
[quote author=brew link=topic=16838.msg170662#msg170662 date=1183477972]
[quote author=Falcon[anti-yL] link=topic=16838.msg170653#msg170653 date=1183471450]
Whats wrong with your boot.ini? Looks fine to me...
[/quote]
ext3 wants to format a partion at partion location #1, and that's where windows boots from.
[/quote]

Repeat after me:
You are inside VMWare.  You are inside a virtual machine.  You are not touching your real hardware.  You are not touching your real disk partitions.
[/quote]
i hope to dear god that's true! i'm about to .....ahem.... *format*

[quote author=brew link=topic=16838.msg170670#msg170670 date=1183489747]
[quote author=K link=topic=16838.msg170664#msg170664 date=1183481684]
[quote author=brew link=topic=16838.msg170662#msg170662 date=1183477972]
[quote author=Falcon[anti-yL] link=topic=16838.msg170653#msg170653 date=1183471450]
Whats wrong with your boot.ini? Looks fine to me...
[/quote]
ext3 wants to format a partion at partion location #1, and that's where windows boots from.
[/quote]

Repeat after me:
You are inside VMWare.  You are inside a virtual machine.  You are not touching your real hardware.  You are not touching your real disk partitions.
[/quote]
i hope to dear god that's true! i'm about to .....ahem.... *format*
[/quote]

It's pretty easy, once you get the virtual disks setup, just install it like you would normally.

hey, thanks for all your help guys! I'm running (so far) Arch, Ubuntu, Slackware, and Debian, and i LOVE it! Is it unhealthy to collect linux distros and run them on vmware like this? Also, can you run freebsd with vmware?

You can run anything with vmware. The question is how well it'll run. Do not try to run Direct3D applications, or you're gonna be really unhappy.

At any given time, I have 5 - 10 VMs running in VMWare. As long as you aren't doing heavy processing in all of them at the same time, you're usually pretty safe.

It gets really interesting when you start to create  forests in vmware and setting up tree's between 3 or 4 DC's with DNS/WINS/DHCP and then you connect XP vm's to those DC's, FUN.

I think VMware is 150% better than VirtualPC by farrrrrr... except when it comes to trying to use SecurExam inside VMware..

I had install a VMWare,but it doesn't work, I just don't know which version to choose.

[quote author=kingsin link=topic=16838.msg172737#msg172737 date=1189745997]
I had install a VMWare,but it doesn't work, I just don't know which version to choose.
[/quote]

The latest version will do, if not the one just before it.