Can anyone explain to me why this works? Since I'm at work, I don't have my grub.conf avaliable, though it looks something like this..

---------
title linux
root (hd0,0)

title win xp
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
-----------

shouldn't winxp be accessed by (hd0,0) once I mapped them? Or, stupid me.. perhaps it should be only one map-line? I haven't found any understandable reading on Grub. My english isn't behaving like I want it to.

could you explain your partion setup? is windows on a different drive?

It seems you have installed Grub in the master boot record (MBR). Grub starts and requests your input - i.e do you want to boot to XP or Linux. Grub is also set to a default and therefore if you have not selected your preferred o/s within 30 seconds it will load the default. You do not say what distro you are runnign but if you have the Commercial version of Redhat 8 you will have the documentation on cd. In that documentation there is a detailed chapter on Grub. It should also be available on the redhat network if you want further info.

I run RH8 on a scsi-drive raid (/dev/ida/c0d0) and WinXp on an ide (/dev/hdg). Grub is installed in MBR on the scsi-drive and the scsi-drive is set to boot first. The setup is working fine, I'm just curious to know why

It's that map-ing stuff that I don't understand.