I have downloaded my set of 7 Debian 3.0r2 installation discs and am ready to install. I just want to know, how will i know which hard drive i will install to during the installation? I have a master and a slave drive and wish to install debian to the slave drive. Also after installing Debian will i still be able to boot windows xp? I accidentally installed xp on the wrong partition but on the same hard drive as my old os a while ago and it allowed me to select between windows me and xp at boot up, will this be the same if i dual boot with windows xp and debian but on seperate hard drives or will i have to do something to be able to do this and if so what?

Thanks

I'm not SURE, but, hda should be your main drive, and hdb should be your slave.. Not positive though...

However, I do know the answer to your second question

Install lilo for a boot loader. In order to boot windows from that, just put the following at the bottom of /etc/lilo.conf

other=/dev/hda
label=Windows


Then run /sbin/lilo

Thats assuming windows is on hda. If its on hdb, then change it to /dev/hdb.

thanks alot

Just to clarify:

Unlike Windows where the 'drives' have semi-arbitrary names, Linux gives sensible names to your devices, but you need to know what you have in order to understand them.

Most computers come with 2 IDE controllers, so you can have 4 devices. These are called as follows:
/dev/hda = Primary Master
/dev/hdb = Primary Slave
/dev/hdc = Secondary Master
/dev/hdd = Secondary Slave

Partitions on your harddrive(s) will also be shown. These, too, are numbered sensibly:
/dev/hda1 = First partition on your primary master
/dev/hda2 = second partition on your primary master

The only thing to look out for is if it suddenly jumps from /dev/hda2 to /dev/hda5. This is not a problem. If your system looks like that, then it is likely that you have set up hda1 as a primary partition, hda2 as an extended partition and hda5+ will be logical partitions held within hda2. Makes sense?

As for booting Windows after you've installed Debian. Shouldn't be a problem. If the bootloader doesn't detect Windows and add an entry for it automagically, you can do so when you boot up into Debian. And please make a boot floppy. Please.