Hello all,

I'm kinda confused here, so this is the current situation.

I've got a WinXP on ide 1 , some data on ide 2 and cd on ide 3 and linux on ide 4.

What I want to do is , reinstall WINDOWS XP on ide 1 , which will then kill my grub boot loader , right?

How am I supposed to build a new grub boot loader from nothing (the linux I'm using/testing is Suse 9.1 ) help me .


Sincerely
Robert B

Hi robert...

Before you install windows, make sure you know what your root and boot partitions are for linux ... I'll assume boot is /dev/hdd1 and root is /dev/hdd3 (with swap as /dev/hdd2).

Boot with a linux startup disk like SystemRescueCd ... or use linux rescue from almost any distro of linux ... after booting up, exit direct to the console mode (if required, like on some distro boot disks)...or use knoppix and just open a terminal window as root.

At the command prompt, make a directory to mount your root partition into ...

mkdir /mnt/fixgrub

then mount the root partition:

mount /dev/hdd3 /mnt/fixgrub

then mount the boot partition into /mnt/fixgrub/boot (if boot is a seprate partition ... it is possible that /boot is included in the root partition, in which case this step is not required:

mount /dev/hdd1 /mnt/fixgrub/boot

now we need to chroot to the SUSE install like this:

chroot /mnt/fixgrub

If that works, you should be the root user in the SUSE install ... now run the command:

grub

Then, at the grub prompt, run the command:

root (hd0)

That should fix the boot partition using the version of grub that is installed on the SUSE install. exit grub and reboot...

Or else..make a boot disk for your linux system..and then you boot using the bootdisk...