Just out of discussion this is what I would do myself... I would fix the scewed up Windows (Master Boot Record) MBR to get into Windows by booting your Windows rescue CD and then type 'fdisk /mbr' to restore it.
Then I would disconnect the First disk drive's cable. Install Ubuntu to the second disk then reconnect your drive. Then set the BIOS to boot the Linux drive first. When Linux is working fine, I would then tell the bootloader (grub) about the first disk.
You can do this using a graphical tool, or you can yourself add a Windows entry to menu.1st
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd1,0) #Windows is secondary drive, Linux is primary
makeactive
chainloader +1
map (hd0) (hd1) # Tell the first hard drive to pretend to be the second
map (hd1) (hd0) # Tell the second hard drive to pretend to be the first
Much of this is optional extras, but it makes Windows continue to call your main drive C: rather than D: so poorly written software won't break.
I will however sort your grub installation out tonight so that you do not need to reinstall Linux and Fix your Windows MBR but that will be possibly tommorow depending upon what Im doing tonight
but im going out to see the family now.. sorry... happy new year
