[useless]

Hi,

I had a working dual-boot of win-xp and fedora core on my winbook. Then xp broke down and had to be reinstalled. I reinstalled xp on it's partition, but then the next time I booted, grub failed to load.
The configuration file grub.conf still holds the right information, but the system automatically goes to winxp.
Does anyone know how to bring it back to where grub is recognized when booted?

the file system is:
/dev/hda
hda2 fat32 (win restore)
hda1 ntfs (win-xp)
hda3 ext3 (linux)
hda4 extended
hda5 linux-swap

the grub files are located in:
/dev/hda3/stage1
/dev/hda3/stage2
/dev/hda3/grub.conf

the grub file:
no /boot partition, so all paths are relative to /
boot = /dev/hda

default=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,2)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
root(hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rghb quiet
intrd /boot/intrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
title windows
rootnoverify(hd0,0)
chainloader +1

I get the impression that maybe windows xp overwrote the MBR and that I need to go in through FC4 linux rescue to overwrite the MBR with a grub loader, but I'm not sure if that is the right thing to do or how to do it.
Thanks,
Dave/Useless

[danleff]

Yes, when you re-install Windows, the MBR is written over.

boot disc 1 of fedora and type at the menu screen,

linux rescue

When you get a command prompt, type,

chroot /mnt/sysimage

This should mount the root filesystem (as long as you don't get any error returned) then type;

grub-install /dev/hda

A good explanation if the method can be found here.

[useless]

Up and running again.
Incase anyone else has the same problem, I'd like to note that my post had two further problems--
hda1 actually had win-restore on it
hda2 had win xp

so the grub.conf needed to be changed from norootverify(hd0,0) to norootverify(hd0,1)

Thanks!

[danleff]

This is why I generally ask what make and model system one has. The hidden restore partititon in many systems cause this exact issue.

Nice work!