Boot Loader

[mhitesh 0]

Suppose i have two OS, say i have Win XP and Redhat, if for some reasons i have 2 format my XP partition and reinstall XP again, i wont be able to boot redhat since i will have a new bootloader. How can i get the GRUB boot loader without having to reinstall redhat or without installing any kernel packages.

 

 

[z44sms 0]

There's probably a lot easier way but I FIND the entire so called restore or RESCUE CD worthless pile.

 

I think there are ways to save your boot loader <during install or after> on some distributions but don't think you can easily do that on modern Redhat distribution.

 

However on current RedHat, I installed GRUB wiped out my BOOT loader installing <WINDOWS> and booted off my Redhat cd disk 1 install cd when asked what I wanted to do I acted like I was going to install but not to format my Drives left as is meaning data contained was not formated then when it came to end of install it, remade my boot loader adding my other hard drive <windows> /dev/hda1 and /my linux boot again. When I was done it remade that.

 

It's alot easier to install WINDOWS software first then you should put on LINUX because LINUX doesn't erase other OPERATING systems like Microsoft does. Hell, my windows machines don't even know my linux format thinks the drive is unusable infact windows could never read a file off it without non-microsoft tools, yet Linux can read any windows file format without a problem.

 

You should even be able to edit or save your boot loader without doing what I did. But I found it easier to use CDs then use a worthless pile called RESCUE cd. I remember doing that stuff with slackware pre-xwindows saving BOOTLOADER was not GRUB but something else at the time <~1990s> And I am sure it would require some wierd saving from command line prompt before hand like cp /boot/fake.conf /dev/fd0 of course all that is fake but I am sure someone has that written down. Problem with just saving it you have to put it back on that requires a changing of boot sector anyways so all this stuff should already be done before hand else you probably just be better off doing it my way anyways.

 

 

 

[danleff 0]

Windows over-writes the MBR (master boot record) on install.

 

Try recovering Grub back to the MBR (if that is where you had it) by doing the following'

 

Boot the Fedora cd disk #1 (installation disk).

 

At the installation menu, type in linux rescue (hit the enter key)

 

Once the system loads, at the terminal prompt, log in as root uer. Then Type in;

 

chroot /mnt/sysimage

 

This will get you to the root filesystem console.

 

then;

 

grub-install /dev/hda

 

We eliminate the recheck code, as grub apparently was on another boot partition.

 

Note if you get any error messages, or if you get some output with no errors.

 

Then type in the command;

 

reboot

 

See if the grub menu comes up and you can choose your os, either Windows, or Linux.

 

NOTE: This works only if Windows was installed on the primary master originally and when you re-installed Windows. The /dev/hda reference assumes the first master primary hard drive partition.