Problems with dual boot and grub

[Marc Schwartz]

On Mon, 2004-03-22 at 18:39, Jeff Vian wrote:
> Marc Schwartz wrote:

> >Understand that my own use of this particular approach is that I do not
> >want to overwrite the MBR. I need to essentially preserve the Windows
> >partition in as transparent a process as possible, since I lease my HW
> >and need to send it back to Dell when the lease expires.
> >
> >Thus, I want to be able to both install and remove Linux as easily as
> >possible, without having to reinstall Windows and the associated
> >applications.
> >  
> >
> This problem with the MBR is easily handled with one of 2 ways.
> 
> 1.  boot to a dos/windows floppy and use "fdisk /mbr".  This will 
> rewrite the mbr and return it to the raw form that dos/windows (among 
> other OSes) like for booting directly from the active partition.
> 
> 2.  before putting the linux boot loader on the mbr, save it with "dd 
> if=/dev/<boot drive> of=MBR.saved bs=512 count=1" to create the image as 
> it was befre installing, then when ready to restore it back use dd again 
> to replace the original copy.


All true Jeff.  Since I am preserving the Windows partition, it is just
as easy to deal with the approach that I have. I don't alter the
partitions once the system is set up, so the process is really a one
time deal. It has been largely "set it and forget it" through three
versions of RH/FC.

Thanks for raising these options, which may be helpful to others.

Regards,

Marc Schwartz