I loaded Slackware 10.1 on my dual hard drive system, which already includes WindowsMe/Mandriva 10.2.

I partitioned my master hard drive for the swap and boot sectors for Slackware: hda5 and hda6; Mandriva runs on my secondary hard drive.

When I try to load Slackware, I get "kernel panic" message that urges me to bypass the inited to the kernel. Any suggestions?

I've tried to configure Lilo through Mandriva control center. I'm reticent to experiment with the bootloader for fear I'll make a mash out of the operating systems I already have.

Another issue: my main hard drive 160 gigs. The partitions are on the latter part of the drive and I'm wondering if the bootloader would recognize those sectors.

If not, is there a way to re-partition the FAT/c: drive to include Linux but adversely affect the existing Windows system?

Boot with the installation CD, mount the installed partition as root and then run lilconfig to install lilo for slackware to a floppy first. that way you have it separate from mandriva boot loader.
You can use your FAT C: as a boot partition without repartitioning, configuring mandriva and slack both to look for their kernel and config file there.
You can create hard disk images on your FAT or NTFS and mount them as regular partition using the -o loop option.
the bootloader itself must be on a partition that is below the 1024 cylinder limit.