Sarge is older than Etch, the version that I was trying to point you towards. The installer has improved somewhat over time but Sarge should still install OK for you. It may be worth your time in doing it. if just for the experience, but I would still suggest a net-install of Etch when the beta 2/beta 3 issues are resolved. No additional news on the installer web page today on that topic. At least your CD will be pressed and not a high speed burn.

I doubt that the install is too complex. Lots of things look that way until you get involved and try them. The Sarge and Etch installs are somewhat different; and it's been a long while since I installed Sarge, so I may not remember the exact points as well as I remember Etch, but I'll help where I can.

The thing to decide here is exactly how you want to allocate disk space. You mentioned having two drives. Is one already in use for XP? What is the status of the other? Unformatted? Formatted but empty? Formatted and files on it? Partially formatted but some empty space?

As long as you make that dd backup of the mbr I don't think there would be much reason to be overly concerned about a dual boot configuration, but if you have two drives there is another approach that you could take that should greatly improve your comfort level. You can buy removable hard drive trays that would let you quickly swap between your xp and Linux drive. The link is for a US source but 'm certain you can find an item like this locally. Get two trays and you could swap your Linux drive in and out any time that you wanted. And there would be absolutely no concern that anything you do installing Linux could harm your XP disk if it isn't in the system at the time. With this approach you could safely install any system that you wanted.

One thing that I should mention about the install, you get a lot of choices about the type of install. Someone just installing Linux for a web server might not want a graphical user interface, for example, and could just do a server install. When you get to the question about the type of install, if you select "Desktop Install" it will install a GUI and get everything set up for you. With Etch the default GUI is Gnome, but you can apt-get install kde easily. I think Gnome is the default for Sarge, but I am not certain. And I remember the question being asked somewhat differently. Overall this should not be a problem. Actually, I recommend doing a few diffwerent installs just to gain some experience and see your different options.