Can I dual boot linux with windows if linux is already installed and windows is not?
I have Linux installed on my primary harddrive, I plan to install another harddrive and put windows on it, can i move my linux harddrive to the secondary position and put my new harddrive to primary? Also how would I configure a boot manager?

It is possible, Windows will likely take over the MBR and you'll be using the NTLDR boot manager(I don't like it). There are guides to add linux to it, or you can use a linux rescue disc and get GRUB/LILO back as your bootloader.

you'd better clean up the mbr of your first hard drive before installing windows

install windows in the partition you chose. if you've done that only windows will be booted when the pc is turned on...

you must now install a boot loader other than windows' in the MBR. i have grub here
if you install grub it will automatically create the entries for the OS you have in your machine...

I know i sound like an idoit but what is a mbr and how do i clean it up?

MBR = Master Boot Record. The area of the hard drive that the BIOS passes the boot process to. There is a whole lot of info about it I could give you, but its about 90% worthless, so that answer should suffice

OK, how would i go about cleaning this?

Once windows is installed, you can lilo from your linux distro or a rescue cd to fix LILO. You haven't told us which distro, so if your using grub, I'll have to look that up

Windows may complain about not being first on the drive. XP trys to get me to remove the partition in "it's" place. Almost always have to put a partition on the master drive. They don't like to be the "slave". Good ole windows for ya. To avoid an headaches install windows first then linux. Usually make for a nearly fool-proof install.

I'm not sure if this still matters, but the 2.6 kernel had issues with seeing XP. Use your xp recovery disk to get to the command line and fixmbr if you run into that problem and need to get windows back in a hurry.

Unless things have changed (very) recently, Windows must be installed on the primary drive.
So to answer your question, yes you can move the Linux disk, and install the new as primary for Windows.
At which point that Linux disc will become non-bootable - must be primary, and the boot-loader will have installed in the MBR of that disk.
Windows will install into the MBR of the new disk, and will know nothing of Linux.
Boot manager setup depends on which you choose to use; Linux (grub/lilo) or Windows (ntldr).

Nothing is as easy as it seems, is it.

Given your lack of experience, it might be best to check if your BIOS supports changing the primary disk.
If it does, you can select which disc to be made primary at will, and boot the applicable O/S. No physical movement needed.
I don't like to do it this way, but others happily run like this.

After you get a bit more comfortable with things, you can set up the bootloader to load both. Plenty of how-to's on the 'net.

computergee

if you installed windows xp, just take the cd you used and boot your machine with it in the drive. then some normal processes happen...

at a time you'll be asked to "install windows" "repair installation" or "exit"
choose "repair"

you will have to choose the installation to be repaired. if you see something like:
"1 c:\windows" you should type "1"
after you have to type the administrator's passwd..

when you finally get in the prompt, make FIXMBR and it will clean your mbr
then install the boot loader of yourt choice...

So let me see if i got this right.

I can move my linux harddrive to the secondary/slave position and put my to-be windows harddrive on primary/master and install windows on there?

Computergee,

there are two ways to do this:

1. using the bios software to select the HD that is the master and slave drive.

2. changing the plug in position on the hard drive ribbon cable. The plug at the end is the master postion, the plug in the middle is the slave position.


Ideally it is better to install Windows first then Linux in a dual drive setup. The Linux boot loaders are better.

Thorn

I got it working, I just installed windows and then installed linux. But now for some reason my 80 gig hdd that linux is on is reading as 30 gig. Also it loads linux first then I have to switch to windows, how can I make it so it go to windows first?