Reinstalling windows on a dual boot system

Timothy Murphy tim at birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
Wed Jun 1 13:05:25 UTC 2005


sid wrote:

> I have Windows Xp prof and Fedora 3 installed on my laptop. I need to
> reinstall my windows xp cos its showing its native behaviour..like system
> hang.. Now i read that if I reinstall windows..it will overwrite my
> current boot loader(GRUB)..and then i will not be able to boot linux. Is
> there a way to do it without losing my linux installation??

If it were me, I would start by copying the MBR:

        dd if=/dev/hda of=mbr bs=512 count=1

Then I'd burn the Fedora Rescue CD,
and make sure this allows me to boot into Fedora.
Then I'd re-install Windows.
Then if the MBR is destroyed (it may not be),
I'd get into Fedora with the Rescue CD,
and re-install the MBR with

        dd of=/dev/hda if=mbr bs=512 count=1



-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland




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