Hi there,
  Thanks so much for your suggestions!   I decided to go with Ubuntu, as it seemed the most user friendly and free (:)).  Again, I am using a PC with windows XP.  I installed everything absolutely correctly, but when it came to the screen to prompt you to decide to run along side another OS or to erase and install over the old one, it said that my computer currently did not have an OS? 
 
Any clue what that might mean?  Could it be that my laptop is security enabled so it can't access it to find the OS?  Unsure.......
 
Any suggestions would be great!!!!
 
Thanks everyone,
K