AARRRRGH!!! (was RE: Linux Install error)

[lug at the-leveys.us (Don Levey)]

I've just spent a most frustrating 36 hours.

I've been putting together a new machine (hardware specs below), and
attempting to create a dual boot (Win2k and Fedora).  The Win2k installation
went smoothly.  Linux, not so much.

New machine:
Motherboard: ASUS A7V8X-X
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (1.91Mhz +512 L2 cache)
Memory: PC2700 512 Mb
Disks: (1) 40 Gb Western Digital
       (1) 120 Gb Maxtor
CD R/W & DVD combo
Video: ATI RADEON 9600 PRO
NIC, Sound integrated with Motherboard

I've installed Win2k on the 40Gb drive, set up as hda.  I've set up two
partitions, for a C & D drive, and a small extra partition to be used for
/boot on linux.  No problems so far.

Trying to install Fedora, however, has been a nightmare.  I've installed
RedHat a number of times before (as well as Mandrake, Vector, Debian, and
Gentoo - I'm a rank amature, but an experienced one) without even the hint
of such problems.  I've tried to install on hdb, the 120Gb drive (with /boot
on hda).  I've had freezes and crashes during most phases of the install;
they can be broken down into three categories:

1) Error copying/installing package
The error text says that there could be a hardware error, faulty install
medium, or full disk.  The latter two have been checked; hardware is brand
new (FWIW).

2) During graphical setup start, error initialising x display.

3) Error during partition/format.
When this happens, an immediate warm reboot shows that the machine BIOS
itself no longer recognises either hard drive.  Cold boot clears this.

Interestingly, I've sometimes been able to restart the installation after
#1, and complete it, but no boot loader gets loaded as it says I've done
nothing kernel-related.  I've been trying to follow the advice given in the
install and place my boot loader on my boot partition and not in the MBR, as
Win2k is an NT-derivative.

Remembering a recent post to this list, I had set up my hard drives to be
explicit Master/Slave; in desparation I changed them to Cable Select.  This
allowed the installation to complete successfully, on the first run, and
more quickly than previously.  However, I still don't get the Grub screen
(boot into Win2k automatically).

I know that I can edit boot.ini on my C: drive to act as a boot loader, but
am not sure of the correct parameters for linux.  For all I know, I do have
grub installed on /boot, but I'm not finding it at startup.  Should I have
installed this to the MBR anyway?  Is there a way of moving this properly?
Might I have missed anything else?

TIA,
 -Don Levey