Is it safe to have Mandrake (9.2) and Windows XP on the same computer?
I don't want there to be any chance of losing files in the Windows partition.
Also, even if it is safe, I'm looking for advice on things I should and shouldn't do to make sure Linux won't affect Windows and Windows won't affect Linux.

I'm currently using Bootit NG as my partition manager. I tested it on a Windows 98 computer and it worked fine at making, copying, deleting, sliding, imaging and formatting those partitions, but the partitions managers in Mandrake and Windows seem like they might be conflicting with it.

I also want to have 2 seperate Wndows partitions on the same comp (one for games and the others for working). I've had a lot of trouble trying to get this to work due to confliction problems above.

If you have any advice to give me that would be appreciated. Also, I want to know the diff between Mandrake 9.1 and 9.2. Maybe it makes more sense just to use 9.1?

I've not used Mandrake 9.2 but I dual boot Windows XP and Mandrake 9.1 on two computers and I've never had any trouble with them interfering with each other. They both get along fine. I used the disk manager in windows to make 2 primary partitions and then during the Mandrake install used the partition manager that's built into the installer to setup the linux partition. Even when I reinstalled Windows, I thought it would overwrite lilo so I backed up all my Linux stuff first, but after the reboot Mandrake was there untouched. The one thing I've had trouble with was the partition manager, DiskDrake, in the Mandrake Control Centre. After I used it I couldn't boot into Linux so I had to reinstall, so avoid that. But it didn't touch Windows and during the reinstall I was able to set things up the way I wanted.

Well Windows XP uses NTFS file system, and as far as I know Mandrake 9.2 can only read but not write onto it. Whereas Windows XP can't even read ext2 which is used by Linux.

I don't use Mandrake 9.1 and am also a newbie. But from what I read here and there, MDK 9.2 has better supporty for newer hardware. Like my HP PSC 1210 which couldn't be detected by RedHat 9, is now available in my MDK 9.2.
If you want to know more about MDK 9.2, you should go to Mandrake threads, you'll find tons of information there.