I have two hard drives, one with Windows installed (master) and one drive waiting for a Linux distro (slave). Is there a way of creating a boot partition at the start of the first hard drive, so I can boot to Linux without destroying the data on the disk, using a free utility (not partition magic).

Thanks

Will

Wlecome to LQ.

When you install a bootloader like grub or lilo (I prefer grub). They will install to a partition of your chosing then only put the first stage on the MBR. This will not alter any user data that is on the drive but you will need to add a bootloader entry to boot windows. There are lots of examples on this site - just use the search and include your windows OS.

What Linux distro are you thinking to install?

All you need to do is install lilo or grub to the MBR (of hda, the master hard drive) when you install the Linux distro. This will give you a screen whereby you can dual boot. It's really simple with most distros.

As far as I know, almost all Linux distributions assume you may want to dual boot Windows and Linux.
An understanding of terminology differences in Windows and Linux is useful.
Windows: A:/, C:/ (probably your hard drive), D:/ (possibly your CD or a second hard drive or partition on your primary drive).
Linux: /dev/fd0 (usually your floppy drive), /dev/hda* (whatever you have as a primary master), /dev/hdb* (whatever you have installed as a primary slave), /hdc* (...secondary master); /dev/hdd (...secondary slave)
It is always best to back up files or confirm you can boot from another source.

Because you have 2 HDD so it is not necessary to have any special programs. If you want lots of partitions in a single HDD. Ranish Partition Manager is quite good.

2.43 can boot more than 4 partitions.