Windows install *after* Linux

It's fairly straightforward to install Windows and then install Linux. But what is not so straightforward is to do Linux first. I got into that situation because my Windows partition was clobbered but my Linux was still working perfectly. I went through the Windows CD install, but afterwards I got an "invalid partitioning" message when Windows rebooted after the first phase of its install. I've googled "windows xp install SLE site:lists.suse.com" but could not find anything useful. To make matters worse, the Windows partition is a logical, not a primary. Should I just give up and install everything from scratch, Linux as well as Windows? Fortunately this system doesn't yet have any data that I need to preserve. Paul