I have been wondering if this might be a hardware issue. Seems to me like there have been a lot of people with Grub and Lilo destroying their Windows 2000 and XP boot files. So it got me wondering whether or not this could a hardware issue.

The reason for this thought is because I have installed Red Hat 9 several times on my machine (mostly because I've screwed things up beyond recovery) and Fedora Core 1 a few times.

So, if those who have problems could possibly give a brief run down of their main hardware lists, I wonder if there might be some similarities that have been missed.

I running:
AMD Duron 1.3Ghz on an Epox motherboard.
512mb RAM
Maxtor 60gig 7200 RPM hard drive with XP as HDA
IBM 40gig 7200 RPM hard drive with Core 1 as HDB
Grub boot loader installed in the MBR

Thanks guys. Let's see if we can't crack this little issue and report it if we find something amiss.

The boot files you are refering to would be ntloader?

When you install Linux ntloader is replaced by one of the bootloaders, lilo or grub. This is not a hardware issue or a problem, it's how it should be if you are going to use one of those bootloaders to dual boot. If however you want to use ntloader it can also do the job.

Installing a bootloader to the MBR does not harm your file system, it only replaces the current bootloader.

Basically you only need one bootloader on the MBR to boot your OS of choice.

Yes, but the issue has been that once Fedora has finished installing Grub or Lilo, users have been unable to boot in to Windows when they should be able to. This, to me, is an issue. I am not saying that it's hardware specific, but knowing what people's setups are, would help eliminate one possible problem.

It actually is an option to install a boot loader. I always do so I can boot the system after install. Sometimes the kernel is too big for a boot disk.

by IBM hd you mean a Deathstar? Ick. Ive had so many that failed I cant stand them anymore. I only use Maxtor or Western Digital.

And Im having a humongous problem with Linux, if you can help please go Here and help. Please please please.