Now you can try Linux on your hard drive without any risk

I've toyed around with Linux in the past, including using several versions of Puppy Linux, a live-distribution which takes up only 60 MB on a CD, and installing Xubuntu on an older computer, but haven't ever set up my computer to dual-boot, because I didn't want to risk losing data while repartitioning.

Until now.
While browsing the net, I discovered this program, Wubi, which is a Windows-based program that can install Ubuntu Linux onto a disk image on your hard drive, without the need to partition, and without any risk to your data. The only drawbacks are that Hibernation mode doesn't work, and data (on the Linux disk image only) is at a slightly higher risk of corruption if you don't shut down your computer properly, and other than that, it's the same thing as if it was installed onto its own partition. You should try it, I'm sure you'll use Ubuntu at least part of the time.
And if you don't like it, you can even uninstall it with the Add/Remove Programs section of the Control Panel in Windows. It's that simple.