Grub

[autek]

Well I need to re-install win. Is there any way possible to put grub back on the mbr ?? I can easily save all from Debian testing and re-tweak if I have to.

Ed

[deanlinkous]

A live cd should let you reinstall grub.
Should also be able to boot from debian cd1 and use the rescue option.
Could also use grub4win.
And you could, boot into debian, change the active partition to the debian partition, install grub there. Then install windows, it will change the active partition back but when you are done just change the active partition back to the debian one and it MAY still work fine. I have seen this work before.

All I got. :)

[benjaminq]

Two ways, one is described here http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html in section 3.

The other possibility is getting a copy of a MEPIS live CD, securing your own and current /boot/grub/menu.lst, then giving the live CD a spin and select from the MEPIS utilities (user root has pswd root in live CD mode) to reinstall GRUB into the MBR. Then you can restore or adopt the entries of the menu.lst with those of your backup.

I have used option 2 several times before, just to repair a broken GRUB configuration.

Benjamin

[xmixahlx]

put windoze on it's own hard drive (and use grub to boot both) and you won't ever have to worry about that stuff again...

[autek]

Well I guess I should have done a little reading first. I always thought that Grub was a one shot deal and if you re-installed win it was just gone. Thanks to Google it really doesn't seem that diffcult to get Grub up and going again. After reading the replies here reassures me that it is just about a no-brainer as my grandson would say. I do have win on hda and Linux on hdb, do I want to install Grub to hdb ??? I was planning on using the mbr on hda.

Ed

[xmixahlx]

mmm...

i would put windoze on hdb and linux on hda (grub on hda!)

if you need to do crazy maintenance to windows (hdb) you can disconnect linux (hda).

that way grub isn't hanging about on windows' MBR.

reinstalling grub is very easy, yes. :) - but why make the situation harder to maintain???


later

[bhobjj]

mmm...

i would put windoze on hdb and linux on hda (grub on hda!)

if you need to do crazy maintenance to windows (hdb) you can disconnect linux (hda).

that way grub isn't hanging about on windows' MBR.

reinstalling grub is very easy, yes. :) - but why make the situation harder to maintain???


later

I agree with xmixahlx.
use a grub entry with a map command like this to chainload boot windows on the 2nd drive:

title windows
map (hd0,0) (hd1,0)
map (hd1,0) (hd0,1)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

If you need to reinstall grub and you have a grub floppy, it is easy to reinstall grub.
After the floppy boots and you get a grub prompt do:

grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

The 1st command tells Grub where the /boot/grub diretory is located (hda1)
The 2nd command tells Grub where to install hda mbr
The 3rd command exits the program.

[autek]

Thanks to everyone I think I have gathered enough information. This will be a "in-progress" and probably will not happen until after the family vacation week after next.

Ed

BTW I bought the desktop from a local reseller. The other day I got the infamous "your version of XP is pirated" . Needless to say the reseller claims no knowledge..........

[autek]

One of my pet peeves of forums is that most people don't report if the advice worked or not. So if you Google you may still not find an answer. Deanlinkous suggested using cd1 as a rescue disk. At the prompt I typed "rescue" and it worked just fine with the (hd0) at the command prompt further along in the rescue mode. Everything is back to normal and working just fine.

Ed