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Old 05-31-2005, 02:06 PM   #1
witiwap
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MBR on a CD??


I am using a dell (I know and I"m sorry) with my own HD and I have just installed morphix to the HDb (mine.) The problem is that the dell has some kind of customized boot loader and it won't boot at all if I screw with the MBR at all. (I've already had to re-install the MBR and don't look forward to doing it again.) It seems that there would be a boot loader that is downloadable as an ISO or a floppy that could do the same, but I can't find it. Any help would be appreciated. FYI I'm a computer tech faily well-versed with windows but this is my first with linux, so I know most of what I'm doing but aparently not enough.
 
Old 06-01-2005, 01:16 AM   #2
exit3219
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You should have no problem installing the MBR on the hard disk. Do you use dual-boot (e.g. WinXP etc.)?
What distribution d you have?
 
Old 06-01-2005, 02:54 AM   #3
syg00
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Huh ????.
Laptop or workstation - I have a Dell laptop, and have both Gentoo and Slack in addition to the XP it shipped with.
Boot loader of choice is grub - of course. No problems - current menu count is 6; gotta clean up one day

As exit3219 said, installing to the MBR - if done properly - should be no drama.
If you want to back up the MBR first, try the following (floppy mounted at /dev/floppy);
Code:
dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/floppy/mbrsave.dat bs=512 count=1
Do your worst - if it all goes to hell in a handbasket, MBR can be restored easily from something like Knoppix (Morphix ???) with
Code:
dd if=/dev/floppy/mbrsave.dat of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
However, you do have the option to install into the MBR of your own disk, and set that as primary boot disk in the BIOS.
From there you can chainload Windows, or change it back in the BIOS to boot Windows. Lots of people (apparently) do the latter, but seems unnecessary amount of screwing around to me.
 
Old 06-01-2005, 03:53 AM   #4
exit3219
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It really is a mess to try and configure the Windows XP loader (uses boot.ini).
I suggest you install LILO boot loader (after reading the docs, of course! ) and configure it to load WinXP.
That's how I managed to boot 2 WinXP's and Debian from a single loader!
 
Old 06-01-2005, 04:01 AM   #5
exit3219
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The MBR is the first sector of your hard disk. The code in there is executed when your PC starts. It is only 512 bytes, so it contains a jump instruction. The execution jumps to another 512 bytes of code, and from there is jumps to your boot loader.
That's why doing
Code:
dd if=/dev/hda of=/floppy/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1
will copy your MBR to a safe place.

Gee! You can't do that within WINDOW$, do you?!

Check out http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_d...oot_record.htm
 
  


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