Restore Grub

[Phil Schaffner]

On Mon, 2004-06-21 at 18:13 -0500, admin at kclinux.net wrote: 
> I have a client that develops in both Windows and Linux.  They're using 
> desktops that used to dual boot Windows 2000 and Fedora Core 2.  We're 
> about to roll out Windows XP Pro to each of the workstations, and when I 
> tested on one of them today, the Windows XP install wrote over the MBR 
> and now Grub no longer comes up, just boots straight into Windows XP.  I 
> searched the archived and say "grub-install \dev\hda" as a suggestion, 
> but when I boot off the FC2 CD, it doesnt have grub-install anywhere on 
> the CD.  Can someone give me another suggestion?

Nice that they are supporting Linux.  A few suggestions in order of
preference:

1.  Sell them on a cross-platform development environment (Focus of
current Linux Journal - http://www.linuxjournal.com/)and VMware (http://
www.vmware.com/) under Linux, or better yet separate dedicated systems
for testing.  Don't install Windows XP dual-boot.  Dual-boot with M$ is
a seldom-necessary evil to be avoided if possible, except for situations
like accommodating the kid's games on a home system.  Hardware is cheap
compared to the administrative problems accompanying dual-boot.

2. Make advance preparations for XP clobbering the MBR by using
"mkbootdisk --iso --device boot.iso `uname -r`" to make a bootable CD
image that can then be burned to CD-ROM, boot to FC2, and run "grub-
install /dev/hda".

3.  Make advance preparations for XP clobbering the MBR by creating a
grub boot floppy :  "grub-install /dev/fd0", or use attached script to
make a GRUB boot floppy with a menu, boot to FC2, and run "grub-
install /dev/hda". 

4.  Boot FC2 CD in rescue mode, mount the installation under "/mnt/
sysimage", IIRC, following directions, and run "grub-install /dev/hda"
("\" is M$ notation for directory separators) after Bill Gates clobbers
your MBR.  Beats me why you say it is not there.

Phil

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