currently i have 4 partitions on my hdd and 2 unpartition reserved for linux (10GB & 500MB). i already had Win XP installed, and wanted to install linux 7.2 now. i tried installing it before but my win XP wouldn't load, and i gotta reformat it again. Someone told me that i have to install GRUB into the MBR. May i know where is the MBR?? and what else should i do to enable both platform to load? sorry, i'm kinda new in linux. juz wanted to try it out

this is what you do. since your going to restart anyway, remove all partitions. Partition as much as you want to windows, but keep in mind that you still need linux hard disk space. then install windows. Next install linux.you're going to want a /boot partition of about 50 megs. then a swap partition greater than or equal to your virtiual memory. then make a / partition of all remaining space . also, the / partition and the /boot partition should be filesystem type "ext3". you can use the GRUB boot loader or Lilo. This is also assuming you're using Red hat 7.2. As for that MBR part, i don't know what the crap he's talking about. If you install windows first, Red Hat will do the rest for you, allowing you to boot into windows.

mbr stands for master boot record that's where os's boot from. being a newbie to linux i can tell you from experience that you don't want to install grub or linux on the mbr, but on the first partition (/boot) of linux. if you get tired of linux-it requires a steep learning curve- and decide to get rid of it you will not be able to boot any os and will have to do a reinstall of xp and apps.

Make a 100mb partition at the VERY START of your boot drive make sure Redhat uses this as the /boot partition. After that, make a windows partition (I use 10GB) then make your Linux partition (I use 5GB for redhat and another 5GB for slackware) You will also need to make a swap partition twice your physical memory. Install windows on the 2nd partition 10GB in my example. and then install redhat on the next one after than 5GB MAKE SURE to let redhat install grub in the /boot partition (100MB).

I have been installing the boot loader on the MBR for over 6 years without a major problem. Of course I did a lot of reading to know how to fix things when needed. Some things I learned: 1) always make a boot floppy in case the boot loader becomes corrupted. This way you can always boot to linux with it and fix the boot loader 2) make sure you understand LILO or GRUB well enough to fix the boot loader in case that is necessary 3) always know how to clear the MBR in case that is needed 4) learn how to use linux rescue I started out in 1996 using Windows 95 / Slackware 3.2 with LILO on the MBR. I now use Windows XP Pro / RedHat 8.0 with GRUB on the MBR.

so, does it mean that i need to create 3 partitions (main, boot, swap) to install linux?? i used partition magic 8.0 to create linux partitions and they only reserved 2 for it, one is linux swap(which is created at the very start of my drive), and the other one is linux ext2(i assume this is where i will install the linux rite??) what's the difference between boot partition and swap partition?? is it a must to have all three??