I have Windows XP on one hard drive and the second one is empty.
I installed Red Hat Linux 7.2 on the second hard drive and chose the option where it puts Grub (instead of LILO) into the MBR.
Now when I start my computer, it goes into the grub prompt. Here I cannot get it to recognize the linux root partition. And to start up Windows XP, I have to type in the folowing commands at the grub prompt:

rootnoverify (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

after which Windows XP starts up ok. I can however startup Linux from the boot disk that was created during installation. After I startup Linux, I can see the menu file in the /boot/grub directory where the startup options are listed, but they are not being used when the computer is started.

I would appreciate it if someone could help me out here so that I do not have to use a boot disk, and when I start up the computer, I have options to boot up XP or Linux without having to type any commands.

This is a new Dell 8200 which came with XP, to which I added a second hard drive.

Roger

well, this might be a little bit after-the-fact, but i would have used LILO rather than grub. in my opinion LILO works much better at handling dual boots.

i'm currently dual booting between win2k and redhat 7.2 on a laptop with LILO and it works perfectly.

i've never used grub though (since LILO's more universally accepted, i like to stick with what's used in all/most flavors of linux) so your guess is as good as mine.

i'm currently dual booting between xp and redhat 7.2 on same drive with GRUB and it works perfectly.

Default Grub show XP as DOS

I am not sure but once you are in linux maybe you can edit GOB conf files