Probably not.

After doing that, you would need something else to make sdb bootable.

I don't know if you could find or install an old style MBR on that disk that transfers control to the boot sector of the sector marked as bootable. I also don't know if Linux partition table managers can be told to set the old style partition bootable flag.

I think you could use dd to copy stage 1 of LILO from sdb? to sdb.

I'm pretty sure you could use dd to copy stage 1 of LILO from sdb? to a file which you could put on the Windows system, then modify boot.ini so ntldr gives you the choice to boot Linux through that file.

I've see a Windows program you can download for free to which you can specify a partition and it will create a tiny customized boot routine to transfer to the boot sector of that partition. That works just like the option immediately above, but with one extra stage (ntldr loads that customized boot routine, which loads stage 1 of LILO).

Probably all those choices are harder than just finding a different installer for LILO (or using GRUB) and installing stage 1 directly in the MBR of sdb.

Wow, do I have a lot to learn. I don't know anything about stage1 stage1.5 and all that. I guess I should go the route of disconnecting the windows drive and doing the full install as the only HD so the install program will put LILO on the mbr, then I'll have to figure out how to change things around when I reconnect the windows drive and the linux drive becomes sdb. Slackware includes GRUB package, but uses LILO in the installation routine, so that's why I've been only talking about LILO. I have so many questions, but I hate to waste peoples time when I don't even have it on my system yet. My hard drive gets delivered today!
Thanks.

Most Linux users never need to.

If you chose to reconnect so linux is sdb (rather than reconnect so Windows is really drive 1, but tricked into booting as drive 0) you'll need to be booted in a linux liveCD when you fix the installed linux.

I know you'll need to edit fstab because the identity of the drive changed from sda to sdb. I don't know whether anything else in Slackware would need to be edited.

I expect something in LILO will need to be adjusted, but I don't know what.

I think it would be easier to reinstall LILO (or GRUB) after puting the windows disk back, than to adjust LILO. But that would defeat the original purpose of removing the Windows disk (not having it there during the LILO install to avoid the risk of doing the install wrong and overwriting the Windows drive).

I'm starting to think that maybe I should just throw caution to the wind and write to the mbr of sda.