Hi All!

I have a bit of a problem. I am dual-booting Redhat 8.0 and Windows 98. The Bootloader is Grub. Now, my issue is this. The Windows System had become buggered up(too many installs/uninstalls and other Windows silliness) and I would like to reinstall Windows. The partitions won't change. Now, when I did this before, Windows reinstalled it's own bootloader, leaving me unable to boot to Linux. What I'd like to know is how to either prevent Windows Setup from overwriting the MBR, or how to reinstall GRUB after the windows install without having to redo a RedHat setup.

Thanks in advance.

First you have to boot your Linux partition - I am sure that it is possible to create a boot disk with RedHat, maybe someone else can post how to create it. Or you can use loadlin

http://elserv.ffm.fgan.de/~lermen/
( Be careful - there is an image of a crazy looking guy )

With this tool you may launch linux from Windows. But for this purpose you will need to put a copy of the kernel onto a windows accessible partition :

http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm

Use the above tool Explore2fs to copy the kernel from /boot/bzImage-2.4.xxx to a windows partition and then use something like

loadlin bzImage /dev/hda2 vga=773

the partition has to be the one of your linux system. However, once you are back in linux you have to reinstall grub :

> grub
> root (hd1,0)
> setup (hd0)

You have to adjust the paths !

You will find some more info here:

http://gnomesupport.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3033&highlight=grub

Another way of keeping windows and linux boot loaders separate is to install the linux boot loader on the second disc and tell your bios to boot off the second disc. This way windows will still overwrite the boot sector of the first disc, but due to the fact that you boot off the second disc you needn't care any more.

Thanks for the info. I'll try that.

It's laptop, so I can't tell the BIOS to boot of the second disk.

I found a tutorial to create a boot disk :

http://www.desktop-linux.net/grub.htm

and maybe

> grub-install /dev/hda

will be enough to reinstall grub.

Well, thanks for the info guys. I managed to get it done. Below is an account of my actions, just in case someone looks for the same info.

1) I made a bootdisk using the following command:
"mkbootdisk --device /dev/fd0 2.4.18-27.8.0"
This created a bootdisk tailored to my system. It stored enough information on the disk that I could boot to my Linux system no matter what the bootloader looked like.

2) (Re)installed Windows. As expected, this overwrote the MBR so that the system only booted to Windows. Didn't have to do an fdisk /mbr, as it just did it by itself. Finished the entire installation. Windows stable(for now).

3) Booted of the Linux bootdisk.

4) Did a "grub-install /dev/hda".

5) System Up and Running

Of course, your mileage may vary, but this worked for me.

Thanks to all the people that replied.

I am not Borg. I am one of one.

Greetings,

with reiserFS ? Here's some info to avoid future possible problems :

Windows was first linux 2nd ?

If yes you have a problem reinstalling windows ,

Let me explain

Windows wants to stay front and in case you did something in that partition ( let's say you have 2 , 1st for windows 2nd for linux with reiserFS) i dont think you'll have problems at all , just you need to reinstall windows and then reconfigure your bootLoader

Otherwise if you went through some wild stuff you cant resize your reiserFS easily so you can get back your 1st partition in order to get windows installed and you have to backup everything if you want to be sure and proceed with caution

Get gnuparted or pqmagicXP ( in case you need reSizing)
(fdsik /mbr to get your default window,then you need Bdisk and reconfiguration of your boorLoader)


Farewell

Hi All, I have a similar setup to the one above (but with FC2). My windows 98 is typically poorly but just about working, but I do need a re-install.

My question is, would it be possible to take a back-up of the MBR (there are freeware win-tools to do it) before the reinstall, and then restore it after the re-install?

Dont wanna try it and be left with just windoze! Thanks Guys.