I am currently running Suse 9.1, and for a few reasons I might need to install XP. Most sites I found said I have to install XP first, so if Linux is already there (goodbye). Well, Suse has its own partition right now and there are 3 other partitions that I can wipe clean or give XP 2 of them.

I was thinking that if I install XP on its own partition and it can have the mbr then I should still be able get to the bootup files for suse right? Is there something I am missing here? Are there any partitions (swap) that need be there for linux?

Just curious on things I should think about before I went down this road and wiped the whole computer.

You should leave a linux swap partition. Windows doesn't need to be installed first. If will however, overwrite the MBR. If you want to use the NT boot loader to boot linux, that is fine. Most people just re-install Grub/Lilo after windows has taken over the MBR.

Look at the partitions that your drive has now. You should have whatever partitions Suse is using and one partition you plan to use for windows. If you don't have a partition for windows, you'll have to make one somehow, but you don't want to destroy or lose your linux partitions in the process.

After you get windows installed, just boot to a rescue cd or live cd like knoppix and run the grub installer or lilo to put back the boot loader.