Greetings

Wow Oo it's been so long since I posted here xD. Anyways ^^...

I have two hard drives on my comp:

hda 40Gb Seagate (IDE 1 Master, Windows XP, hda1=20Gb partition, hda5=20Gb partition)
hdb 40Gb Maxtor (IDE 1 Slave, nothing there)

I used to run Debian Sarge all fine, but got tired of waiting two long hours to just update to Etch (I reinstall very frequently) so I decided to go for something different.

Gentoo (2006.0): Boots perfectly, and when finishing install, both with LILO and GRUB, goes like: FATAL ERROR, can't install GRUB/LILO.

Alright, so I try Ubuntu...

Ubuntu: Boots perfectly, installs, and when finishing, about 85% if I let it download the language packs or when configuring clock if I skip it, it just stops, does nothing. Waiting 15 min on a 933Mhz/256Mb RAM/52x CD I guess is enough for noticing it isn't responding.

Of course, I'm installing the bootloaders in the MBR of hda (or so I guess that's what the installers are doing), but if Debian can do it fine, why these two can't?

Can anybody tell me what to do in this case then? I want to try those distros on hdb

Any help is appreciated .

(Just incase: I have no money, can't buy any PC parts, I'm asking for help with what I have, not with what I don't have / can't get)

Try making the Windows XP drive the slave drive and the Linux drive the master drive, and reinstalling the bootloader.

Yeah, I have been thinking in that.... the thing is that my PC is a Compaq Desktop model... :/ a pretty pain in the you-know-what to get the HDs out of the bottom where they are oO but that's the only solution right :P?

Not sure if its the only solution, but I'm pretty sure it will work

Cool I'll try in a bit thanks for that

However, will it affect my Windows XP though? C: is C: (hda1) and D: is D: (hda5), will they be keeping the same name and such, while still being the slave drive? how would I go into booting it with GRUB after Ubuntu gets installed? =( it's compatible too if the XP drive has its own MBR too?

Thanks in advance

Your Windows XP drive should become /dev/hdb (C: will be /dev/hdb1 and D: will be /dev/hdb5). Your drives should have the appropriate pins set to "cable select" or "cs." As long as you didn't damage Windows XP's MBR, booting it from GRUB shouldn't produce any problems. Ubuntu should automatically configure GRUB to do this. I do it on my desktop all the time with Kubuntu .

I am concerned though--you mentioned that you tried to install GRUB on the Windows XP drive's MBR and it failed...

Yes, it did, but luckily it was smart enough to stop and not write any changes.... dunno why

Anyways, Windows still sees itself as C: (so that's cool) and now I have a working Ubuntu system (and I'm glad to admit: I haven't logged in Windows in 3 days as of now :P)

Thanks for the help!

Edit: Here's a screenie -> http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/8682/deskie1il6.png