Quicky Setup - Linux and Windows XP/2000 dual boot

Use fdisk to partition your drive properly.
Download an burn 3 Mandrake 8.2 CDs or your favorite distro
Install Windows XP/2000 on the first partition, make sure you use fat 32 as your file system, not xp ntfs
Start your Linux Installation and install the /root directory into the second partition.
Install GRUB into the first sector of your boot partition (usually /boot) and not in the MBR. (Note there are reported problems with lilo)
Make a boot disk during the Linux installation if possible so that you can boot into it.
Now boot into Linux and copy the boot image from the boot sector. To do this run:
dd if=/dev/hdan of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1
, where /dev/hdan is the location of /boot and /bootsect.lnx is the Linux boot image.
Copy this bootsect.lnx file to a safe location where you can reach it using Windows.
Reboot into Windows XP/2000 and copy this bootsect.lnx file into the root directory (C:\).
Edit c:\boot.ini and append the following line: c:\bootsect.lnx="Linux".
Reboot your system and boot directly from the hard disk.
The Windows XP/2000 boot loader should now give you the option of booting into either Windows XP/2000 or Linux.
Try booting into both of them to see if you were successful