Linux and Windows XP on the same PC 2934

Then back it up. What kind of a question is that? You demand the universe does as you say?

That's a windws question. I believe the answer is yes, but I do not run windosw.

That is a windows question. Logic suggests that the answer is "no".

That is easy. Lilo doesn't care where the kernel image is, and the kernel image doesn't care where the file systems are. Your bios may care, so "that is a bios question".

That is my understanding also. So you want to back it up, or rinstall it afterwards.

Only via the bootloader on the mbr. It'll be perfectly accessible via, for example, a rescue floppy or cdrom, a PXE netboot, or even a saved copy of the bootloader booted from the windows boot.ini, in clbuttical fashion.

Of course. You don't need a kernel, btw - the bootloader should be enough.

Of course you can mount any parbreastion from a linux kernel, provided you have a driver for its FS.

What would be the difficulty?

You make easy things sound impossibly difficult. Where do you get your perception of the world from? This kind of thing desn't need thinking about, much less need worrying about!

Peter