GRUB failure after WinXP re-install

[Scott Talbot]

> On 07/18/2004 06:05:33 AM, Mikael Konttinen wrote:
> > 
> > All,
> > 
> > I've finally got a working Windows XP again and no data loss on the
> > NTFS
> > data partitions, though it was done with a fresh re-install of  
> > Windows
> > XP.
> > During the installation of XP apparently the MBR was rewritten again,
> > this
> > time with the result that GRUB no longer works. Somebody mentioned
> > that
> > possibility earlier, though I didn't listen as I thought that since
> > GRUB is
> > written on the /boot partition and not on the MBR, it shouldn't be
> > affected.

<snip>

On Sun, 2004-07-18 at 11:16 +0000, Jim Cornette wrote:
> It's great that you didn't lose your AV data.
> 
> About grub after the reinstallation of XP. I had a similar symptom when  
> upgrading systems before. I ended up booting from the first CD in  
> rescue mode.
> linux rescue
> After getting into rescue mode, I typed the below to change the  
> environment to the FC install.
> chroot /mnt/sysimage
> This gave me a shell with a bash prompt still, but the programs from FC  
> worked fine.
> Now, I would rerun grub-install. This depends on where your boot  
> partition is located snd on which partition is active for boot. In my  
> case /dev/hda1. I believe that you have /dev/hda2 setup as active and  
> as your boot partition.
> grub-install /dev/hda2


This should be /dev/hda, which is the mbr of the boot disk. grub-install
knows where the /boot partition is, and will tell the boot process to
find it when needed.

Scott

> This works for me with several FC installations on the same machine.  
> Why it sometimes corrupts with reinstallations of one OS or another is  
> beyond me.
> 
> Good luck and hopefully this works for you. Backing up data is still  
> wise to do though.
> 
> Jim
> 
> -- 
> A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no  
> battle unless there be two.  -- Seneca
> 
> 
>