newbie question concerning linux install

[Richard Swen <rswen@kyocera-wireless.com>]

Currently with much effort I have been able to finish part of the install
on my computer configured as follows:

p3 550mhz
128megs of ram
vodoo 3 3000
soundblaster live
3com 3c905c
Maxtor 13.0gig UDMA/66
ABIT BE-6 II Motherboard
IOMEGA 250MB Zip Drive
3com 56K Fax/Voice/Data Modem


Currently I have the hard drive partitioned as follows

NTFS:  5GB
NTFS:  4GB
Linux Swap: 256MB
Linux EXT2: 4GB

I can complete every thing but make the drive bootable.
When I try to make the hard drive bootable, it seem
like the CDROM is detected as having the MBR.  I may 
be mistaken on the device names but here is what I 
remember.

CDROM      hda
ZIP Drive  hdb
Hard Drive hde

Thank you,
Richard Swen