GRUB just plain won't boot by itself
 

I've messed up the MBR of a video surveliance device. I've installed GRUB in the MBR and now I get a GRUB> prompt when the PC starts, I can then get it to boot by typeing in

root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
configfile (hd0,0)/boot/grub/grub.conf



I guess it's not seeing hte config file and whe it does it'll kick off and boot right up, I figred this command using the Super Grub Disk. I've also booted to knoppix LiveCD and done what's suggested in another thread which is to boot to a liveCD, and run grub with these commands

To install grub:
grub opens the grub shell
root (hd0,0) tells grub that the /boot directory is on drive 1,
setup (hd0) puts grub on the mbr

with no luck

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I've tried just about every GRUB command but the right one I think

What distro are you using?

well it depends on whether /boot partition or sub-folder to / is truly on first partition.

2) use that live cd again to run a partition tool to see what your structures are.

3) I prefer
su
grub
root (hdx,y)
setup (hd0)
quit

using a live cd...where hdx,y is the partition that truly contains /boot.

4) when you boot that live cd can you post the output of
fdisk /dev/hda
fddisk /dev/sda

just in case we do not have a true linux structure

5) alternatively ....you can follow my troubleshooter to see what partitions are etc

6) I prefer not to use a config file and we have not seen your error messages to know if you have one.

the live cd...can list the contents of hda1 or sda1 /boot/grub/menu.lst

Knoppix has icons on the desktop that can be mounted read only when you click on them