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NTFS Dilemma with Bootloader

Hi. Let me just explain to you what my dilemma is.

Hard Disk Partition:
Partition #1: 50GB [NTFS]
Partition #2: 50GB [NTFS]
Partition #3: 50GB [NTFS]
Partition #4: 30GB [FAT32]
Free Space: 20GB

I am planning to install Fedora Core 4 in the free space left on my harddisk. But I am not sure about where to install the bootloader. You see, the last time I installed it in the MBR on another comp where the first partition was an WinXP installation, it corrupted the whole partition and I had to reinstall Windows, and lose all my data on that partition. So I need to know whether installing the GRUB bootloader on the MBR will kill my first partition or not. This harddisk is my data disk. I load XP on my primary drive. Help me out, okay?

One more thing. I would like to know how I should partition this last 20GBs. What is the use of a swap partition? And how much should I allocate for it?

Thanks in advance.

A swap partition is the same thing as a paging file in Windows only a lot bigger. It makes the operating system more stable by allowing you to run more applications at once without eating up your RAM so bad. Linux usually picks the best size swap paritition for your computer by default. Mine is 1 GB and it works just fine. Can't help you with the bootloader problem though, I'm still fairly new to Linux and I have a 20 GB master hard drive that is running Linux, and an 80 GB slave that is running WinXP, so I never had to worry about where my bootloader went. Sorry.