I'm going to try to kill two birds with one stone, though I'm a COMPLETE newbie at Linux, and I do mean complete newbie, never touched it before. Anyways, I decided to start with Mandrake, and I downloaded the ISOs and burned them to a CD. Now here's the thing. I have an 80gig hard drive that already has XP and all of my files on it. I have an extra 40gb hard drive as well. What I want to do is set up the 40gig drive to be my Linux drive, so I dont have to change the partitioning on my main drive. The problem is, I have no idea how to go about doing this. I've also never installed any Linux version before, so I have no idea what I'm doing.

Is it as simple as setting the BIOS to boot the new hard drive, format it and install Linux? If so then great, but it seems like working with Linux usually requires a little more work than that. Which is fine, I just need some guidance.

It's easier than that. Delete all the partitions on the 40GB drive. When you do the mandrake install, choose the install on unallocated space option. Mandrake will partition and format the drive for you and install on the 40GB drive. It will also install a boot loader called lilo which will present you with a boot menu when you boot from which you can boot to windows or linux.

If your confused or not sure about anything during the install re partitioning or where it's being installed, just abort the install and post back with your question. Mandrake will give you plenty of warning before it partitions and formats anything. It's pretty easy though. Once you see it I'm sure you'll have no problems.

The two hard drive problem has been addressed a few times but vaguely. You ae lucky that you chose Mandrake, as its installer seems to be able to install Linux on a multi-drive system without a hitch. You'll really have fun with it and I bet you'll find you're booting into Mandrake more often than the other...(remember to use Drakfont to get the fonts from your Windows drive too so you can take advantage of those nice TTF fonts that they spent so much money making pretty!)

You'll have not need to switch the boot order if you let Mandrake install the lilo boot loader to the MBR. You'll then be able to choose the OS you want to log into. Make sure the jumper pins on the back of the drives are set to master/slave and not cable select.
Make sure all Plug And Play settings are turned OFF in the bios.