See dude...a linux distro is a complete OS..so u need a separate partition for it.As far as a I know..there is no distro which can be installed without partitioning the HDDSo in Win XP , use Partiton Magic to resize you partitions and create blank space on your HDD, thus you will reatin your data. Then boot any Linux installation CD and use that free space to make your root partition and swap partition.Post your HDD and partition(size and free space in the partition ) info here..I ll tell you the optimum method to resize.BTW even though Fedora is huge, its worth it, Rock solid as compared to Ubuntu.