I have installed FC4 to my 2nd, slave drive & have XP SP2 installed on the primary drive. FC4 appears to have installed ok, just won't boot.

I tried going into the BIOS & changing the boot order of the drives but then I get a system error message & it hangs. I tried booting it from the FC4 rescue disc but it then wants to re-install or upgrade the system. Tried that but it made no difference. I've also tried installing the Grub to the mbr & to the first section... that other option but still no difference.

I know that XP can't be installed after Linux or it over writes the bootloader. In this instance it appears to be preventing the bootloader from being installed. XP also has the latest version of the .NET Framework installed which made considerable changes to the way the machine booted. I'm wondering if this isn't responsible for preventing Grub from installing.

How can I install Grub without XP interfering?

TIA

What errors are you getting, if any?
GRUB on the MBR should work just ok.

hello,
sometimes it happens if you install the linux distro on slave h/d.
boot with the FC4 rescue disc.......and when it'll ask for re-install or upgrade the system.......type "linux rescue" ( without " ) there.
follow the steps it asks for.
finally mount the system on /mnt/sysimage ( it will ask itself, u need to just press ok )
then u will find the console.
type
#chroot /mnt/sysimage
#grub-install /mnt/hda

not post the entries of "fdisk -l" and /etc/grub.conf.

regards

nO errors. It just boots straight into XP instead of Grub.

This sounds like it might be the answer! Thanks I'll let you know tomorrow how it goes.

Do a .

I am not sure how accurate the statement

grub-install /mnt/hda

is because hda means the MBR of the first bootable disk and in mounting the distressed FC it would be only its partition being on mount.

grub-install /dev/hda

is correct as it is directly applying to device hda. The result of that statement should lead to FC bootloader in the MBR, thereby overwriting XP's resident boot code.