Problems with dual boot and grub

[Marc Schwartz]

On Tue, 2004-03-23 at 04:03, Nigel Wade 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.
> 
> But your approach is actually modifying the Windows partition, whereas using 
> GRUB in the MBR doesn't touch Windows at all. To get Windows to boot Linux 
> you first have to copy a GRUB boot sector to the Windows partition, then you 
> have to modify boot.ini to add an option to boot Linux. To set the system 
> back to its initial state you have to undo both of those actions. If you use 
> GRUB in the MBR all you have to do is run fdisk/mbr.


Nigel,

Compared to actually resizing the Windows NTFS partition on the drive to
make room for FC1, the copying of one file (linux.bin) and the editing
of another (boot.ini) are trivial.  :-)

To reset the system back to its original state, I need to do more than
just delete the linux.bin file and undo the edits to boot.ini. I need to
remove FC1, do all of the wiping that Tom Mitchell and I have discussed
both on and off the list late last night (this morning? ;-) and then
resize the NTFS partition back to it's original state.

If I copied GRUB to the MBR, I would still need to do all of the above,
except the two file changes, which again, are trivial compared to the
others.

The primary goal is to retain the Windows XP and Windows application
installations intact, so that I do not have to reinstall the above at a
later date. I have more than enough disk space to preserve those
installations and still have lots of room for FC1. My approach
accomplishes this.

As with most things, there is more than one way to get to the same end
point. This is the mechanism that I have chosen.

Cheers,

Marc