Will re-installing XP in the XP partition erase the GRUB boot menu?
 

The XP partition ceased to boot (in fact when it seems to start Windows, it re-boots once and again). I can access the XP partition from Ubuntu 9.10

If I boot with the WXP CD and reinstall it in the original NTFS partition, will it wipe the boot menu out, loosing any chance to boot in Linux?

Thanks

it will, but you can easily reinstall grub with the ubuntu live cd and fix that

How do I know which GRUB version I have, 1 or 2?

The boot menu says GRUB 1.97 beta 4

I tried

grub --version

and got

The program 'grub' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install grub
grub: command not found

so?

Ubuntu, beginning with 9.10, uses Grub2.

GRUB 1.97 beta 4 is Grub2.

You need "sudo grub" to get output. What happened to xp? If you're able to boot Ubuntu, have you tried running sudo update-grub?

Well, the grub is not damaged, I think, as the menu appears and I can choose between Linux and Wxp, but xp reboots a couple of secs after the Windows screen appears.

But as soon as I repair xp, for sure GRUP will be erased.

Xp is probably set as default, you can change it in grub.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

Sorry misunderstood statement about reboot.
Run winsxp disk select repair "fixmbr"
then
http://karuppuswamy.com/wordpress/20...rescue-prompt/

The command is

sudo grub-install -v

Xp is not the default OS, it's Linux.

By "reboot" I mean, when I select Win xp, the Windows screen appears, the progress bar (those small blue squares running from left to right while ths system is starting), then the PC re-starts again (BIOS, then GRUB menu, as if I pressed the reset button).

I tried to repair XP using the XP CD but to no avail.