Installing 8.1 on second hard drive
 

I have windows xp on my first hard drive. I have a 12gig second hard drive that is sitting empty. I thought I would put linux 8.1 on the second drive. I have partition magic so can get the drive ready.
Do I just put in the cds and let it go on its own???
If I decide I don't want to leave it on or there are problems with it how hard is it to go back to a blank drive and start over???
What about the boot choices at the boot up??? Does that go away too if I were to uninstall linux???
Thanks for any help
mjcalling

My suggestion, would be to let linux install to your second drive, and instead of using lilo boot manager use a boot floppy.
the installation wil ask you is you want to install lilo or use a boot floppy. This will save you the mess of getting rid of lilo if you want to remove linux.

Since you have partition magic, you can just delete the linux partitions on your second drive.

Thanks for the fast reply.
My question is what about boot disk? Not sure I understand that.
Can you explain what I need to do?
Appreciate it..
mjcalling

Basically you start up linux with floppy disk, that tells the computer where linux is installed.

When installing the cds does it ask then if you want to use a floppy and has you make one right then??
Is that how it works???
mjcalling

You're pretty close. You should be prompted to make a rescue/boot floppy during the install regardless of how you choose to boot. At another point in the installation process, you'll be asked if you want to install one of the Linux bootloaders (Lilo or Grub). At this point, you might see an option to install the loader to the Master Boot Record (MBR). This is what you don't want.

What I was trying to get away from is the start up after turning on the pc and you have so many seconds to decide which operating system you want. I hate that...
So If I stay away from what you said I should be ok???

mjcalling

I have boot magic installed.
Do I install linux on my second drive and then start boot magic? How do I put on what I want it to do??
I don't want that blue screen with the choices and so many seconds to respond. I want to be able to use boot magic to tell which I want to start up first.
I want to get all this straight before I install...
Sorry if I'm asking over and over.
thanks for your help
mjcalling