Problems with dual boot and grub

[Nigel Wade]

Marc Schwartz wrote:
> 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
> 
> 
> 

The only point I was trying to make was that, all other things being equal, 
fdisk/mbr is a much simpler step than deleting linux.bin and editing boot.ini.

Ultimately the choice is yours, my main emphasis was to encourage others to 
follow the GRUB rather than the Windows way.


-- 
Nigel Wade