Hi, I have an interesting problem, I think.

I have a PC with XPPro running on the 30 GB HD that came in it.
I've just added a 40 GB HD with Win 98SE on it from an older computer, there are no particular files on it that I can see, just some 98SE apps (which I removed, as well duplicates of apps on master HD, running XP)(that is to say, I dragged out some folders,as I don't see applications showing up in XP control panel).

I had pondered trying a triple-OS system, with 98SE for the hell of it, but that's looking like, so unneccessary - all of the apps I used in 98 seem to be ok in XP, and doing the dual Windows part looks like I might wipe out XP data, which I'd rather not (this computer is not my main computer, but I have some game characters going...)

So -
I have an old copy of Fedora Core 3, with the Negus Bible - so a huge paper manual for reference.
But - it looks like there was some pretty crucial problems with dual booting XP and this version of Fedora, I printed off the workaround, do I even want to bother, book or not?
I was orginally thinking of simply plopping (some!) Linux onto the slave HD, it's only now occuring to me that with 98 on it, the dual-booting thing may be just random, trying to figure out with either Win OS.

So - suggestions?
Can I wipe the 2nd HD, if I do that, can I install XP on it? (I was thinking of moving some big files onto the 2nd HD, and only having apps/games stuff on 1st HD). How would I do that?
I can see that it might be easier to format the 2nd HD and put a Linux on the whole thing, but then I lose the capability of using the 2nd HD for Windows files - don't I?

I'm still thinking of maybe installing the Fedora 3 (as the 'latest' version of book+software Linux I own), but am interested in Ubuntu - there is a good tutorial on dual booting with XP at Forge.

Any ideas? Can I have 3 OS on here without reinstalling XP? Which HD should I put Linux on, if I want to dual boot?
What are your thoughts on old Fedora 3, or newest Ubuntu (it's a low average setup PC, maybe 3-5 years old, so I don't think hardware will be a huge issue, either way).

Again, this is not my 'main' machine, so I'll only be melancholy, not devastated, if I end up starting from scratch -
I have XPPRO OEM, Win 98SE, and 2-3 old versions of different Linux distros to hand (while keeping Ubuntu in mind).
As it happens, my 'working' machine is an Apple PowerBook, which I have zero intention of EVER foofing with.

Partition the second drive for Linux and NTFS (you'll need to format from Windows I'd expect). Then dual boot with grub on the second HD. You'll find plenty of howtos for this, btu make sure the one you use has map commands for the Windows boot.

I don't think using FC 3 would be a good idea, as it is so out of date, you could get Fedora 8 and use that instead

Billyetc.,I think I will go with this option, when I remember how to format a drive in a multiboot system (it's been a while). I think it's just a right click on the drive in 'My Computer, then format it from there without boogering up main drive - yes?
Also yes, think I'll give old F3 a miss, I'm thinking Ubuntu on the 2nd drive, formatted in NTFS - someone over at PC Review (another lively, and useful, forum site) suggested doing a 20 GB partition on the 2nd drive, after formatting it in either FAT or NTFS, then I could store files on the not-Linux partition - can Linux read files here, or would they have to be perverted first?

Meantime, I'm getting revved up, figuring out backups, dropping them into a single folder, then burn to a CDR (assuming the burner works! - I do have two others around...)

I have upgraded this rather hohum box with 1 GB RAM and a 128 MB video card (no physical room for my nice old 5.1 card, this video card and a bad case-to-mobo match leave no room, alas.)

One day I will design and build my own systems, instead of always trying to recover components and old PCs. Until that day, get some more experience with troubleshooting and playing with operating systems, yey. (!)

Don't format the space intended for Ubuntu from Windows, leave it as unformatted, unallocated space. Formatting and partitioning are part of the Ubuntu (or any other distro) installation process.