The Setup

SATA HD (master) running windowsXP
IDE HD (master) running Fedora Core 2
IDE HD (Slave) running Debian Sarge

The Fantasy:

To be able to run all three operating systems off Grub located on the Fedora HD

The Reality

I have the following grub configuration on FC2 from which I can boot WinXP and Fedora.

default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Core (2.6.6-1.435.2.3)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.6-1.435.2.3 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.6-1.435.2.3.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.5-1.358smp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358smp ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.5-1.358smp.img
title Fedora Core-up (2.6.5-1.358)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img
title WindowsXP
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

I want to be able to run Debian from a third HD and learn how to use this whilst still having a fully operational Linux. I dont want to install them all onto one drive as I dont want to run the risk of rubbing any of my existing partitions.

The problem comes when I try and install debian onto the third HD. It installs, but then when I set the FC2 HD to boot through the bios grub throws up an error 17 message before it even boots grub.

Ive repaired the FC2 installtion by using the installation DVD and its back to normal now i.e booting FC2 and WinXP, but when chaning to the Debian HD through the Bios its saying that it cant find the OS.

Can anyone shed any light onto whats happening and how I can overcome this.

Why do you want 2 use bios to boot?
Just use grub to do the job of booting into Debian. I'm using grub to quadboot without a prob

I think you missunderstand me. I'm only using the bios to boot when changing between the FC2 drive and the Debian drive.

The FC2 and WinXP installations work fine off the grub on the FC2 drive, but when I try and install Debian on the third drive, it seems to affect grub on the FC2 drive and gives me an Error 17 message and wont boot any further. Until I install Debian things work fine.

I've read on other posts and through a search on Google that this is a bios problem, although I've not been technical enough to understand the remedy (if there is one)

I would be intrested to know how you got all three working and your grub configuration.

Sorry for the late reply. Very busy lately. I don't see a reason for debian to corrupt GRUB on your secondary IDE. Just make sure that you don't install a boot loader(GRUB) during installation for debian (I'm assuming you could configure it like redhat, fedora as well as suse). and everything will work out fine. Of course you'd have to configure grub manually in fc2 to boot into debian once it's been installed. But you only need to do this once. Below is a harder/longer method

Refering to your hw configuration

SATA HD (master) running windowsXP
IDE HD (master) running Fedora Core 2
IDE HD (Slave) running Debian Sarge

Ok here's one possible solution:

default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Core (2.6.6-1.435.2.3)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.6-1.435.2.3 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.6-1.435.2.3.img
title Debian
root (hd2,0)
kernel /[DEBIAN KERNEL] ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /[DEBIAN INITRD IMAGE]
title WindowsXP
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

If you'd like to make sure that this works 100% then do this.
Unplug your FC2 hd and do a normal installation for your Debian.
after installation of debian boot up and try to get into debian (assuming you've set Secondary IDE master as pri boot)
copy the grub configuration for debian and shutdown the machine.
Reinsert your primary slave IDE (FC2) and boot up (remember to setup this ide as pri boot)
enter your fc2 and edit your grub.conf and enter the configuration that you've copied ealier. It should be like the one i've highlighted in dark blue above.

Reboot your machine. and congratulations. GUARANTEED 2 work