a 2nd hard drive

I already have one hard drive with Windows XP. I have connected another which has a corrupted Windows ME that no longer works. As they are both connected at the same time, i want to just format the one with the corrupted OS and then install Linux (which I have a CD for) onto that drive. Please guide me through the process of doing this and how i will be able to switch between the two operating systems once it is done. I searched for this question, but nothing seemed to be directly related.

PS:
Keep in mind that the second hard drive is very old and has no startup disk of any sort. I chose an old one because i did the hard drive window mod on it and didn't want to risk ruining a good one. However, because it is corrupted, i have yet been able to run it.

If you hooked the harddrives up, on the primary IDE channel, with the master being the WinXP, and the slave being the corrupted drive then linux will recognize these two as /dev/hda and /dev/hdb respectivily. Master and Slave on the secondary IDE channel will be, likewise, called /dev/hdc and /dev/hdd. The /dev refers to a hardware device, and the "hd" followed by a letter refert to the harddrive and location in the computer.

You should be able to boot from the Linux CD, which I'm going to assume is Mandrake 9.1 from your other post. The install wizard will guide you though setting up and installing Linux, and all you really have to do is tell it to install Linux on the correct harddrive, which will depend on how you connected the drive.

Mandrake will install a bootloader, either LILO or Grub, and you can choose to install that in the master boot record on the master hard drive, in the root partition of the Linux harddrive, or on a boot disk. In this case it would be easiest to install in on the MBR (master boot record), but there is the possibility that something could go wrong and you won't be able to boot either OS, so that's where you get you WinXP disk and repair the corrupted MBR so you can boot XP. If that happens, you'll have to use the Mandrake disk to repair the bootloader, etc.


Upon boot, the bootloader will then allow you to select between either OS.

For more Mandrake specifiy information, like quick start guides, etc., here's a link to mandrake's site. It's pertains to 9.0, but there shouldn't be much difference.

http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/fdoc.php3

so when i choose the corrupted HD to install linux on, it will automatically format it and all so its ready to have an OS installed on it, or do i need to do that before hand. also, a boot disk is only necessary if i cant boot by cd-rom, otherwise i can just insert the cd-rom and it will automatically boot from there right?

Yes, Mandrake should format it and create the partitions automatically. If it doesn't I'm sure it will tell you what to do.

As far as the boot disk goes, it will be a customized boot disk to be able to boot what you just installed, it's a different type of boot disk than one used to be able to get the CD working. If you use the CD to boot after you've done the install, it will work more like a recovery disk. Though, you can get it to boot Linux, you'll just have to do more work to get it to do that.

Linux (usually) uses different filesystems that windows, and the installer will take care of formatting and partitioning your HDD for you. You don't have to do anything in advance unless you can't boot from a CDROM. If this is the case, there's a floppy image in the CD that you can boot from. IDR where.
Later in the installation process, you'll be asked to make a boot floppy. This is different from the boot floppy that you'd need if you can't boot form the CDROM, and you should let the installer make it. It's what you'll use if something happens to the bootloader. If you don't make it, booting Mandrake will be more difficult if something goes wrong.
If you want to avoid possible problems with the windows bootloader, you can install LILO to /dev/hdb (the MBR of your Linux HDD) or /dev/fd0 (your floppy). If you do the first, you'll have to tell your BIOS to boot from your primary slave HDD. If you do the second, your computer will probably automatically look for something bootable in the floppy drive.

the only problem is that the floppy on the computer which im installing this on, (which also doesn't have the internet) doesn't work and i believe it to be a motherboard problem. i dont have the funds to buy and new motherboard so is there any way i can go through the linux installation process on that comp without using a floppy at any point, or is this an unrealistic goal.

If you can boot the Mandrake install disk from the CD-ROM drive then you shouldn't have to worry. The floppy drive service two purposes as Christoph mentioned, 1. o be able to boot a CD if your motherboard doesn't support that, and 2. to make a linux boot disk to boot your new install if anything goes wrong in the future.

If you can't boot from the CD-ROM drive, then you could always put the harddrive into another computer that does function completely, do the install, and then transfer the harddrive back to the old PC, but I would only do this as a last resort.

thanks for your help guys. now, one last question... in the mandrake FTP server in Virginia im downloading from, there are 5 files, they are:

Mandrake91-cd1-inst.i586.iso
Mandrake91-cd2-ext.i586.iso
Mandrake91-cd3-inst.i18n.iso
a readme file
md5sums.91.asc

I know that the first one is the install cd, but what are the others and are they really necesary. thanks

You only need the first CD to install. The second has extra software and the third has internationalization ( = i18n ) packages for non-English speakers.
You should probably read the readme (hence the name ).
IDK what the other file is, but my guess is that it has the MD5 sums for the other files.

aight, thanx guys for all ur help. im installing linux right now but its been "formatting partition HDD1" for about an hour, how long will this take?

It probably depends on the size of the partition and the speed of your hardware. That said, I've never had a format take nearly that long. Does your IDE light show any activity? If not, the installer may have locked up.

If it does, I suppose you might as well just wait.