two days ago I purchased and installed a new HD. I had the idea that I would run Windows XP (still need it for a few applications) on the older and smaller HD, and would run Debian on the new and much larger HD. I have been doing the dual boot with only one HD for a long time now. I thought it would be safe to install the Debian OS on the last part of the original HD and make the new HD mount as /home.

I thought it was working fine as I was able to partition the new HD as /home and I began copying files to it. When I shut down the computer to re-boot into Windows, I received the blue screen of doom. Seems there is a fatal error in Windows and although I cringed about going through the installation process, I decided to do so. That didn't work either. The Windows XP installation disc kept recycling between loading the initiation files and rebooting; never getting to the actual installation.

Soooooo........... am I trying to do something that is not possible?

This should work. At least, I can't see any reason as to why it shouldn't.

Is your computer trying to boot from the right hard drive? Many modern BIOSes will allow you to choose a boot device. If your HDs are IDE, then it's a tad more difficult, because you may need to pull them out and change their jumper settings.

well......... when I physically installed the drives, I did make sure that the jumper pins were set according to the instructions; one a master (the older one with Windows and Debian OS) and the other a slave (the one designated /home)

I gave Windows XP 120GB, Debian OS 10GB, and 15GB as a swap.

I was wondering though..... is there any way I can re-install Windows XP without having to re-install Debian again? I've spent the last two days configuring my desktop, preferences, and installing software....getting it like I want it. I hate the thought of having to go through all that again just to get GRUB bootloader to work again. When I install Windows after installing Linux, the Windows boot loader takes over, and doesn't recognize that there is a Linux OS.

Can I somehow reinstall GRUB without messing up everything I have worked on?