Brand spanking new to BT.

[Sporadic]

To be more precise, I am a huge noob to linux altogether. After snooping around the forums checking out the possibilities of BackTrack and simplicity contributors offer here, I am excited to have downloaded BT. The eyecatcher was meterpreter firefox on Vimeo. The GUI is extremely simply, yet the transitions and effects are awesome, plus it's different from what I have been using for years, which is Windows.

I downloaded the image file from the downloads section. I was hoping to add BackTrack as an optional OS parallel to Windows 7. Last year, I installed Ubuntu to fool around with, and I remember fondly that when booting up, I had a menu to either boot into Windows 7 or Ubuntu. I'm hoping that's equally possible for BackTrack, as I also wish to sustain Windows 7 intact. My issue is the file I downloaded contained two folders: /boot and /casper. There were barely any files, which confused me. I figured there'd be some setup file or some intuitive installer, but the largest file I had came across was called filesystem.squashfs, which was 1.5gig. I honestly have no idea what to do with this file. I've scavenged the forum for a good 4 hours now trying to find an answer along with being distracted by amazing tutorials, but no luck has fluttered my way.

My search terminology doesn't seem to be effective :/

I'm running Windows 7, x64.

[lupin]

Im guessing you previously used Wubi to install Ubuntu from within Windows. BackTrack does not support installing like that, you will need to make space for a partition for BackTrack and then boot from the BackTrack DVD/USB to install it. There are installation guides available from this site that can give you more information.

[Sporadic]

Wubi sounds familiar, but I cannot be sure. I vaguely remember much of the installation. I read Dual Boot | BackTrack Linux - Penetration Testing Distribution, but that simply says, "boot from...". When it says boot from, I assume it means place the both the /boot and /casper folder in the USB drive, and attempt to boot from there. I tried that, it wasn't recognizing apparently as it couldn't find a bootable USB device.

Provided Ubuntu's installation was vague to me, I know it was simplistic. BackTrack emphasizes that their installation is simple as well, but I can't really spot the simplicity :/ I read that SquashFS is a compressed ("squashed") file system. From what I read/skimmed over @ What is SquashFS, it seems that it's a linux file.

I apologize for asking such a noob question. I usually don't have any However, I have never heard of .squashfs or how to utilize it.

[sagaci]

I would shrink your Windows 7 by 20 to 30 gigabytes and then install backtrack onto this new partition.

[Archangel-Amael]

OP check the tutorial section on the main pagee backtrack-linux.org for a unetbootin install guide. Use it. It is the quickest and easiest noob way of getting started. Then go read the first post stuck at the top of this (beginner section) with my name on it. It will help get you going.

EDIT: Here I added the links for you.
http://www.backtrack-linux.org/tutorials/
http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forum...ad-thread.html

[Sporadic]

OP check the tutorial section on the main pagee backtrack-linux.org for a unetbootin install guide. Use it. It is the quickest and easiest noob way of getting started. Then go read the first post stuck at the top of this (beginner section) with my name on it. It will help get you going.

EDIT: Here I added the links for you.
HowTo | BackTrack Linux - Penetration Testing Distribution
http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forum...ad-thread.html

I've already read both of those links several times before thinking of posting

...I read Dual Boot | BackTrack Linux - Penetration Testing Distribution, but that simply says, "boot from...". When it says boot from, I assume it means place the both the /boot and /casper folder in the USB drive, and attempt to boot from there. I tried that, it wasn't recognizing apparently as it couldn't find a bootable USB device...

Again, I do not know how to utilize filesystem.squashfs, which assumed from it's size of 1.5GB, is the main file.

err... Nevermind. Some links were mixed up on different pages which is why I didn't find it. I still have a post waiting to be approved that I would normally edit, but hasn't been posted..; delete it along with this one if you will. If not, whatever.