Ok rite now i have a new pentium 4 system with linux on it and a crapy win xp system and i was wondering if i could stick another hdd in and put win xp on it so i could boot to it when ever i wanted to play empire earth? I got a 6 gig not in use rite now. I search aroud the net and people have had two operating system on the same hdd but i don't wanna reinstall redhat 9 again so is it posible to stick in a 2nd hdd and install windows xp on to it and have an option where i can boot linux or windows xp?

Yes.

You will need to make modifications in your BootLoader (GRUB or Lilo) configuration file.
There are many threads on LQ which contain sample conf files.

I have been searching for ways to do it but I am a beginner so could some one tell me step by step on how to do it plz

I have had RED HAT 9 running on the system for about a year now and I got windows xp installed now on the primary slave hdd just gotta know how to make it so i can boot up into windows

You will need to modify the GRUB file (/boot/grub/grub.conf)

Here is an example:
You may need to change the hd1,0 in order to match your system setup.

K i edited the grub.conf file and typed that in when i rebooted the computer i selected windows xp and it went to a black screen showing
booting 'windowsxp'

rootnoverify (hd1'0)
chainloader +1

and nothing else happen

?

could someone help me out?? plz

Can you post your GRUB configuration file
And I need to know more about your partitions,
so open a console window and type:

Off the top of my head,

get the other Hdd installed, it depends where you want to put it - have a look at the first screen you get when you switch the machine on (the one that you would use to get into BIOS) that should tell you which ide channel isnt used (my master on the first channel is my hdd, the slave on the first is my dvd. My master on the second ide channel is my cdrw and the slave isn't used - I just havent' got round to installing the second hdd that's sitting in my desk drawer).

You would then have to boot up and look at the conf file for grub (presuming that's what you are using) and just follow the same basic pattern of config layout, remembering to tell it where you want the windows to be - don't forget that windows can get a bit funny if it's not the first OS on a system - You'd have to search for help on that one!

regards

John

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to return grub after making changes to this file
#notice: you have a /boot partiton. this means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda2
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.zpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-18.9)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-18.9 ro root=label=/
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-18.9.img
tite Redh Hat Linux (2.4.20-8)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=label=/
initrd /initrd-2.4.20.-8.img
title windowsxp
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

ok there is my grub conf file

also login as root and type
fdisk -l
and post that

Try the following code:
If that does not work, then you will have to switch your hard drives.
Make WindowsXP the primary hard disk.
Then install GRUB on the primary HD.