hey everyone, i'm kinda new to the linux world but my first experience with linux turned out disasterous so keep reading!
from what I understand I have always heard that linux writing to NTFS is experimental and could cause data loss...well with that said here are the specs on my current computer:
pentium 2.4 mhz w/ ht
1024 mb ram
ati 9600 pro graphics card
40 gb harddrive master
160 gb harddrive slave
CD-RW
NO FLOPPY DRIVE
now my problem occurred a while back, I had windows installed on the first 20 gigs of my master harddrive, formatted NTFS, and had a unpartitioned 20 gigs left on the last part of my harddrive. On the free space i installed mandrake 10 using the iso's i downloaded (3 disks)...the install went fine and i installed lilo to the boot record, but when i rebooted my computer it completely locked up (i couldn't even get to BIOS). since i don't have a floppy i couldn't do anything so i took it to a shop and they had to connect the harddrive to a computer that would read it and allow me to format it.
i figured the problem was due to the fact that mandrake couldn't write to the boot record because it was NTFS...
and with that said...
i want to try installing mandrake on the slave harddrive (160 gb) while i windows xp installed on the master hd (40 gb) which is again formatted as NTFS. how would i go about doing this?
i've read some articles about dual booting two harddrives and it says that i should just install the bootloader (lilo or grub but i'd prefer lilo) to the MBR on the windows partition...but wouldn't that cause the same problem i had before?!
another suggestion i read was to take the windows harddrive completely out, install linux with the bootloader on the harddrive, put windows back in as the master, attach the linux drive as slave, and set the linux drive as the active partition and then modify the bootloader file to add a windows boot sequence. so...
1) what is meant by the active partition?
2) how do i make it the active partition?
3) how would i go about modifying the bootloader?
the last suggestion i read was the same as about but leave linux as the master and windows as the slave. but once again i run into the same three questions i asked as above!?
so iin summary i'm looking for how to install linux and windows on two harddrives without destroying either harddrive!
and on a side note, can i install a floppy on the same IDE cable as my CD-RW drive? if not how do i know if my computer has the correct plugs for it? and can i even install a harddrive on the same ide cable as my CD-RW?
sorry for beeing so n00b
Thanks all!