You know there is another option... You can install Linux to an external hard drive and just run it off of there. Once booted up it basically goes around your internal drive to borrow all your hardware without affecting your internal MS drive. I have several of these... Once your bios boot order is set you just plug it in and power it up and go... :)
What about a computer with two internal hard drives, one with Win, one with Linux? Is it a good idea to get OS’s on separate hard drives?