Ok..lets get down to tha deal...
Well i got a dell with xp on it already then i installed a different hard drive to put linux on
then i installed linux and was going to duel boot with using grub and got tha supposed add-on to the grub to make it boot with xp but all i get is a dell screen that says talks about tech support...
my grub config is:

#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.7-10)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.7-10 ro root=/dev/hdb2 hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.7-10.img
title winxp
rootnoverify=(hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1


winxp is tha master and linux is tha slave

can i get to xp without reinstallin windows xp


someone please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dell were supporting some Linx installations on new PC's but have stopped that now. However the may still be able to give you some advice.

Have you tried to install LILO instead of GRUB?

Sounds like Dell have something which protects the MBR. Not sure though, never heard of it before. Wierd.

I had a problem with my first install as well. To get back to XP I used fdisk to restore the mbr (can't remember the exact command, but you should be able to find that on the net) and then I did a fresh install of Linux
I have to warn you though, with me grub works perfectly now, but only after I had completely reinstalled XP. Couldn't tell you why, but apparently xp had done something weird to the mbr so grub didn't work, which wasn't so on the second install.
The grub config seems ol though, wouldn't change that.

Some will say to use the xp bootloader but that seems to me like a lot of innecesary work.

Good luck

It does sound like something was pre-installed by DELL (hence you had no probs after a re-install) Did you format the drive before the re-install?

This is very interesting .

Yes I did format C, Allthough I have to say my system isn't a Dell but a self made system.
What I suspect is that Dell puts data on your hard drive like compaq e.g. does (e.g. for putting the data for the restore cd and the welcoming screen on). That might be your problem.
With me the problem was probably that the mbr was corrupted because I had moved the existing XP install from the old hdd (now hdb) to the new on (hda). Anyway I'm quite sure it has something to do with te mbr.