Major Mandrake/XP Dual Boot install problems!

[LudeMaster98]

Hey everybody,

ok, so I decided to give linux a try and install it on my system, which consists of:

Xp Pro
1 WD 120g HD with many partitions including one for xp, set as cable select
1 Maxtor 120g HD with many partitions for data only, set as cable select
1 160g HD SATA with 3 partitions for data only
Lite On 832s Dvd writer
Lite On Dvd/Cd combo
ATI AIW 9600 pro
Audigy 2 zs platinum

*note* The WD and Maxtor are both located on a Promise controller card. Each cable select on its own port. I put the two CDROM's on the primary and secondary IDE ports of the motherboard.

So I decided to install mandrake 10.0 in some free space I made on the maxtor HD. everything went fairly smoothly up untill the bootloader (grub). Loading linux was fine but windows was not booting.

After doing some research on linuxiso.org I realized that I had the bootloader on the wrong HD. for some reaseon it was goin on the SATA drive(hde i think?). I then booted with the mandrake cd and put the bootloader on the hdi drive. hda was not on the list, which I thought I had read was where the C drive is.

Booting to mandrake was fine, but Xp wouldn't work. selecting the Windows option, it will bring me to a blank screen that says Grub with a blinking cursor. leaving me with no choice I decided to just get my Xp cd and reload the MBR.

For some reason this won't even work. The Xp cd kept scanning the Sata HD instead of the WD with Xp actually on it. So in a frustrated craze i decide to just unplug my Sata drive, leaving the two 120g HD's as is.

Now when booting with the Xp cd it says that there are no installed hard drives in the system and forces me to reboot. I do, and try to go into mandrake. Of course this dosen't work. It loads a little then freezes with a failed message (which i can't exactly remember right now).

At this point I am at a loss. All I want is to go back to Xp, I will deal with linux after. Right now the Sata is still unplugged and i'm not sure if it is causing this or not. If anybody can help me, It would be very much appreciated. I really hope I didn't screw things up to bad.

Thanks