how to install two new linux versions on hdb

[Ralph E. Kenyon, Jr.]

I have a dedicated Redhat 9 system running as my development server on a  
home LAN.
I use it mostly with tux, apache, and samba mounts.
I just added a second hard drive - 60 Gig.
I would like to install Fedora Core 3 - I have the cd's and Mandrake 10.1,  
both on the new drive, but I can't afford to risk anything happening to  
the functionality of the Redhat 9 system, at least not until I can  
reproduce its setup.
Right now the second hard drive has not even been partitioned. I'm  
reluctant to take any risks that might interfere with Redhat 9 on hda.

All my searching has only yielded dual boot setup that presumes that one  
of the operating systems is windows. So far I have found nothing on  
setting up two or three different linux systems on one machine.

My experience is limited. My original system was a pre-loaded Redhat 6.2.   
Later I did a "wipe-out everything" clean install of redhat 9, with mostly  
everything, so it could be both a server and a workstation.

Do I need to create partitions before trying to install?
Do I need two new boot partitions, one for each version, on hdb?  Do they  
both need to be near the beginning of the drive?
Can the fc3 installation be told to "not mess with" hda? How about  
Mandrake 10.1? Can it co-exist with redhat?

I still want to be able to run the Redhat 9 system, shutting it down only  
for temporary periods while I learn FC3 and Mandrake, and configure them  
to perform the same function that Redhat 9 does now.

Any suggestions?


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Ralph E. Kenyon, Jr.
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