I've got a dual boot configuration setup on my workstation. First hard drive holds Windows Vista, second hard drive holds OpenSUSE 10.2.

/dev/sda1 - Windows Vista NTFS Partition
/dev/sdb1 - Linux Boot Partition
/dev/sdb2 - Linux LVM Partition

GRUB is installed on the Linux Boot partition on /dev/sdb1 and the menu is configured so when the workstation boots, I can select to go to Windows or OpenSUSE.

As long as I never boot to Windows everything is fine. If however I boot into Windows Vista, the next time I restart the workstation I get the "GRUB Error 17" message and cannot boot to either OS.

I finally tracked the problem down and found the solution HERE.

Every time I boot to the Windows partition, it changes my linux boot partition type to "Amoeba" and I have no idea why. I can fix it by booting to a KNOPPIX CD and using the CFDISK utility to repair/re-typify the linux boot partitions filesystem. This is becoming a real pain though because every time I either reboot Windows (for updates and such), or want to boot into OpenSUSE, I have to fix the linux boot partition so the GRUB menu will load correctly.

This does not occur when I boot/reboot OpenSUSE and go back into OpenSUSE.

Does anyone know why this is occuring? If so please tell me how to stop it.

Thanks,
Matt

Install GRUB to /dev/sda instead of /dev/sdb1:
grub-install /dev/sda
I don't know about the differences with Vista vs XP as far as the boot process is concerned, but using the chainloader +1 option, I do it this way with XP on /dev/hda1 and grub on /dev/hda, linux on /dev/hdb6.
Before doing anything like this, definitely read up and make sure you're comfortable messing with MBRs. I don't want to steer you wrong!