I used fdisk to create two partitions and installed windows xp using the recovery dvd that came with my computer on the first partition.

I am trying to install fedora 3 on the second partition.

Windows boots correctly
F3 media checks out
all partitions are recognized

My problem begins almost immediately upon trying to install F3.
From choosing which language the install should use, I get a host of error messages something like this:

--bug--
Assertion...
[random head, cylinder, whatnot info here, followed by various locations disk.dos.c:###, and then...]
...function_probe_partition_for_geom() failed.

I can ignore them all, and get to the partitioning, (although I can create a swap partition with no prob), I get the message:

Could not allocate requested partitions:
Partitioning failed:
Could not allocate cylinder-based partitions as primary partitions.

because of this error I can't create a linux partition on which to install. If anyone has any info on how to get around this, please let me know, I would appreciate it.
Oh, please note that I can install F3 without any problems or errors if I try to install on a freshly formatted, unpartitioned hard drive.
Windows seems to somehow make the extra partition unusable in linux.

I would boot up knoppix and fdisk /dev/hda
remove the second partition
d deleate
2 partition number
n create partition
2 partition number
w write partition table to disk
then try again
fedora may not like windows fdisk just don't touch the first partition or you will be installing windows again.

i don't have knoppix, and I use a public terminal for internet access, so I cannot dl it...
is there any other way to ready the other partition for a linux installation?