How do you dual boot?
and can you dual boot using linux and windows XP? And will it lag your computer down?

You can dual boot by using a bootloader. Either LILO or GRUB.There are other ways but one of those will be the easiest.
Yes you can dual boot with linux and windowsXP.
The only extra time it will 'lag your computer down' is the time it takes you to choose which OS you want to boot to.

What Linux OS are you going to be using? If you havent decided yet and it's your first time, I would suggest using Redhat, SuSE or maybe Mandrake, until you get familiar with the environment.
Are you starting with a clean drive or do you already have a hdd with windows on it that you want to repartition?
if it's clean, I would suggest partioning it in half, maybe even give windows some more room since its bulky(I suggest using FAT32 for a file system, since then you can read and write data to your windows partition from linux, if you use ntfs you can only read the data). Instal windows
first, do what you need to do to get it up and running. THen install linux, during the installation it will see the windows installation and most Linux OS's will automatically set it bootable and configure a bootloader selection screen for you. Choose the unused partition to instal linux on. If you use a linux distro like slackware and use cfdisk to partition your drive just leave the windows partition intact and set it bootable, later in the installation it will allow you to choose and configure your bootloader.

If you already have an existing windows partition that takes up the entire drive, you have two choices:
1. partition magic:$$$
2. do it yourself:free

I never used partition magic so someone else can help you with that if thats the way you decide to go.
If you want to do it yourself, Ill warn you now. You can potentially completley fuck up your existing installtion if you dont do this correctly. First remove all uneccessary files. then defrag. make sure all data is moved to the beginning sectors of the drive. write down how much space is taken and how much is left. give yourself extra room for swap(windows calls it virtual memeory) and space for extra storage. then you need to resize the partition to the size you determined suitable. this is only available under the expert install or mandrake and maybe redhat and suse(can anyone verify this? resizing partitions that is). then just use the spave left to create a new partition to install you linux distro in. =D

Partition Magic is a complete bitch... And I reccommend Lilo...

I am going to do this on a new harddrive, does it matter which one is installed first?

It'd be best if you install windows first. Because if you were to install linux first it will usually write the bootloader to the MBR, unless you specify otherwise, then when you install windows it will overwrite the MBR and then you'd only be able to boot into windows. So, install windows first then linux. It'll cause a lot less problems.

Though it certainly makes u work a bit harder but u can deal with MBR problem, even if u Install Linux first.Don't worry , if installation of windows overwrites lilo or grub linux boot loader.

just boot the system with linux bootable cd
then choose following option

boot: linux rescue

it will detect existance of linux and ask you to execute
following commands
#chroot /mnt/sysimage

after mounting you can acces all the directories of linux
to reload grub

# cd /boot/grub
#grub-install /dev/hda

to reload lilo
#lilo

it will reinstall grub or lilo in MBR
simple , isn't it

Is any moderator reading this, if yeah then do tell if anythings wrong in it.Though im confident it is not.
Urs in Health,
Prady.

Looks ok to me. The only thing I can think of adding is if you did install linux first, there won't be an entry in /etc/lilo.conf for your windows partition. YOu'll have to edit that file adding the windows info or when you run lilo it won't know it's there and you'll lock yourself out of your windows partition.

As for grub... I would imagine the same is true, but I have never used grub and I can't say for sure.

Infinite

Personally i like grub. I use to use lilo until grub came out. Oh yeah and install your XP first because if you install windows after linux it'll write over the mbr. I learned the fucking hard way damnit! Damn windows.

What I like about lilo is that if your mbr gets rewritten when you install windows, all you need to do is boot up linux with a boot disk, and run lilo and everything is back to normal.

Good point. Haven't tried it but can't grub do that also?

Don't know ... I never used grub

yes you can. Start your linux install by booting up the computer with the disk in it and telling it what partition the the installation is on, then use the command:
root@box# /sbin/grub-install [device-name]

grub-install /dev/hda will install it to the mbr of the first harddrive in your computer.

I got this PM from Prady which I think would be better answered where everyone can see the answer.

As for lilo, the entry would look like so:

And as I said before, I am not at all familliar with grub so I do not know what the proper entry would look like. I'm sure a 'man grub' or a 'man grub.conf' would clear that up for you nicely.

Infinite