omg.....Linux installs.....then fails to load the Boot Loader

Im having a nightmare and a half. As i am typing.....Im on the 7th fricken attempt at getting Linux to work on my system. Ok, ive installed Linux using 4-5 different partition combonations...NONE OF THEM WORK. After the Linux installation is complete.....the system reboots and no boot loader shows up. The boot disk that Linux creats fails. I get a failed to load OS error. Ive done these 6 attempts with and without the WinXP partition on. even done it with a blank HD. What in gods name is going on here. Can someone post me a reply on how to Install Linux and ACUALLY having it run after reboot>?? P.S I also want to runu Windows XP too. I have a 40 gig HD , Red Hat 9 disks 1,2,3 . Any walkthrough help is welcomed. I want to prove my friend that he told me how to install Linux the wrong way.

what i did was delete all the partitions on my HD w/ the WinXP setup cd, then installed xp on a 30gb partition then let linux take the rest. then the thing will usually automatically boot into linux and you have to configure the boot loader from in there. i did this w/ mandrake 9.1/9.2 and not redhat but have that one too.
you could TRY that, as for what's going wrong i don tknow.

Have you had a look at this thread (http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=214)

Maybe your hdd is set to something other than LBA mode in BIOS?

done deal......it was using the wrong boot loader. I used grub and it worked fine