Smart isn't it? This was taken from the live disc and I want to install to my hard drive but I don't have a copy of Vista on disc in case anything goes wrong. Will using disc imaging software be of use to me? Also is it easy enough to partition my C drive and leave my recovery partition intact?

I don't use Fedora but from my experience installing from a Live CD you will be guided to select or add a partition for the install. Only the partition(s) selected should be affected. Hopefully one of the Fedora users will jump in here with more info. In the meantime have a walk through the Installation Quick Start Guide. This gives you a visual of what to expect.

Out of curiosity, is there a copy of Windows on the recovery partition? If so it will not be affected (if not selected during install) and should be easily accessible if needed for reinstall in the future.

To be honest Odin I'm only assuming there is a recovery partition and I wouldn't know where to find it. The main drive seems to be partitioned into C Vista and E data and there is a folder in E called HDDrecovery with some files in it. If it is ok to move those files, I might be able to use E for Fedora without further partitioning. I hope so because that will make life much easier. Thanks for the link.

AnMal - what penguins?

it isn't the penguins that are aiming for the rest of the world but I can't tell tell you from here cuz I will get kicked off and fired. Hint,

Welcome to the fun side!

Fedora 20 is set to be officially released Tuesday: 2013-12-17

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/20/Schedule

So, you might want to wait a couple of days and get the latest version.

I make no guarantees as to whether the Fedora installer (called anaconda), will play well with windows partitions. Since I don't use Windows anymore, I don't have any experience with Dual booting the latest version of Fedora, along side windows, on the same drive. The procedure is slightly different, depending on which version of Windows and which version of Fedora you are attempting to dual boot.

Find a good dual boot guide for your version of Windows & your version of Fedora, then follow it precisely.

Thanks Tux. I knew the beta was out but I didn't know when the final release was due. I'll wait til Tuesday then - gives me time to read up on it.

FYI, When I installed Ubuntu from a Live CD during install I partitioned C drive, which contained Vista so I could dual boot. I could have wiped out Vista because the (separate) recovery partition (9.6GB) contained a backup copy of Visa. If your recovery partition is a similar size I'm pretty sure it contains a backup copy of Vista.

If you want to check it out reboot, hit F10 or F11 or whatever it is for your machine to get your startup options (not BIOS) and start the Recovery Process. You don't have to continue on but at least you'll know if it's there.

The startup options I have are HDD, FDD, CD/DVD, LAN and USB

They look like the ones you would find in your BIOS. On your machine F10 or F11 must be for BIOS. The startup options I'm talking about are for Repairing your computer on yours try the F8 boot menu.

When I first started using Linux Mint the live cd offered to set up a partition on the hard drive and leave Vista on it's own partition. Everything worked fine during the process and I still have vista installed installed though I'm thinking about removing it as I never use it these days. To check if there is a recovery partition on vista tap the F8 key on startup.
I guess fedora offerers the same type of install options as Mint though I'm not 100 percent sure on that point.

It does Caz but I'm ignorant of all this sd1 sd2 business so I would like to partition using windows if partitioning is necessary. As I said, I already have a C: and E: partition but E contains a folder called HDDrecovery and I don't feel confident moving it. I'll try F8 later and get back to you.

I do have some kind of recovery system that links to the E partition files but F8 doesn't do anything and there aren't any instructions at all about how to use the system. Useful files eh?

It's a shame F8 don't work, it's suppose to but windows seems to have it's own opinions about what it will let work and when. So with that in mind, and because your post gave me the kick I needed, I have today removed vista and installed Fedora 19 on one of the other hard drives. There was some stuff there about keeping vista and setting up another partition so that vista would still be on the hard drive but I chose to delete it. All should be okay though to let the live cd set up a separate partition for Fedora and keep vista at the same time. Please note that I am no expert but I do like to play around with stuff, and I did once set a car wiring loom on fire.
Fedora does look pretty cool. Not sure if it will drag me away from Mint 16, I do like Mint 16

I never tried Mint, and I have heard a lot of good things about it but I am using Fedora and I think it is great. It is straight forward and down to earth and it doesn't tell you, you need this and that all the time. I hope I never have to go back to Windoze. I do still have it on my other hard drive, just in case I have to use something that I can't get in Linux.

Its a couple of years ago I switched now, Initially windows crashed and I used a copy of ubuntu via a usb stick to repair the drive and recover windows, then it crashed and burned completely so I was given no option but to install ubuntu. I must be honest, not tried any of the other distro's and I know ubuntu has come under a lot of flack for its radical new layout but I do enjoy it.

Part of me would love to make the switch totally but there is too much windows only software that I use and I don't know enough about wine to put my trust in it.