Ok,
So, i finally gave in and installed linux on a normal ATA drive so I could get it on to one of my two 10krpm WD Raptor drives. How can i configure grub to boot XP which is installed on sd2/hdg or hd3???? I'm not really sure I've tried a few different things that dont work. What will happen if I install XP again now that I have my linux install working? Will it erase grub? Sorry i'm such a n00b.

ps anyone know the XFree86 (I know X.org I'll do soon)
config for a logitech MX duo to get the scroll wheel to work
the normal ZAxisMapping isnt working.

Thanks

AFAIK depending upon the destination drive of Windows XP it will erase the bootloader on it WITHOUT asking (which is typically windows - inpolite). However I am not sure if it is the same scenario if you install Windows on another drive.

SATA and Linux definatively is possible and when you know how to do it it is rather easy. There are different appropoaches depending on your Linux distribution. Somebody told me Fedora supports SATA during installation - but I did not check that yet. However one way will work with ANY distribution:[list=1][*]install on a ATA drive[*]boot with Kanotix (http://www.kanotix.de) or a similar CD-based distro with SATA support[*]partition, format and mount the SATA drive[*]copy over the data from the ATA drive to the SATA drive[*]adjust /etc/fstab on the SATA drive (SATA uses names like SCSI)[*]write the boot loader to the SATA drive[*]reboot[/list=1]
Most probably you need to do following steps before executing step 6:

• install a kernel with SATA support (2.6.x or 2.4.x with patches)

Installing linux is the easy part. I've got Gentoo on a normal ATA IDE Hard Drive running kernel that fully supports my SATA (2.6.7-r11) I need to know how to write the grub config file so that the WindowsXP install (I installed on one of my sata drives before i installed linux) will execute correctly. I've tried stuff like
title="Windows XP"
rootnoverify (sd1,0)
chainloader +1

but this does not lauch XP correctly. Do i need to do something special bc it is a SATA drive? Should I be using (hd3,0) ?? since its my 3rd attached HD..
If i do a reinstall of WindowsXP (unknows future need) to get grub back all I need to do is boot of a CD and re-run grub at command line???
Hope this makes my problems a little clearer

Bit of a n00b myself, but does grub use (hdn,n) notation for paths, (e.g. to the kernel) and lilo-like /dev/hda notation for root partitions?

I could be completely wrong here, not at my own box to check...</covers_back>

Grub assigns hard drives numbers based on how they appear in the system.. i e hdb could end up beaing hd0 if hda is a cdrom. I need a grub expert to help me with this one.....