Hi, I have a winxp/linux dual boot system.
Today, I had to format windows and reinstall it.
The MBR of course got erased so i have no way of booting into linux from grub.
I also don't have a linux boot floppy....
So, is there any other way i can get into debian without reinstalling it?
thanks.[/u]

Easy, it is called "change root" and the command is chroot in Linux

You just load any Linux live CD, make a temporary directory, mount your Debian partition and then do a charge root

assuming your Debian is in hda2 and after booting to a Live CD, log in as root at terminal prompt just type

mkdir /mnt/my_debian
mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/my_debian
chroot /mnt/my_debian

Now you are inside Debian. Want its boot loader Lilo back, no problem, just type

lilo -b /dev/hda

and Lilo will be installed in the MBR (no number after hda means MBR).

Let's say that Debian uses GRUB as a bootloader...and you want it back. So use a LiveCD which uses GRUB too (I recommend Knoppix). Alternative to chroot, you may run "grub" and you'll get a GRUB shell, where you type "find /boot/grub/stage1". You should get an output like "(hd0,1)". So, you'll have to run "root (hd0,1)", then "setup (hd0)" and this should get GRUB back into the MBR.
The other way around is to copy Debian's root partition boot sector (also using a LiveCD), copy the resulted file in C:, then add an entry in boot.ini. If you're interested, I can detail on the latter.

harken,

Pre-packaged Debain always uses Lilo as far as my CDs are concerned. So is Knoppix.

As such Grub may not be available at root terminal. If it does, possibly in a Live Knoppix CD, it would not have the neccessary files in place to run the "setup" command. You also need to run "root" command at Grub prompt for Grub to identify the partition to obtain the Stage1/2 files, otherwise it will default to the one you are currently running Linux.

It is therefore beneficial to face the music head on and get Lilo and Grub to boot each other. The two are remarkably similar.

lilo -b /dev/hda in Lilo is the same as

grub-install /dev/hda in Grub

The latter is equivalent to "root (i,j)"+"setup(i,j)" you have suggested.

Not my intention to undermine your advice given out here but I think you may welcome a clarification, as try it out yourself.

Thanks for correcting me in the "root" matter. I perfectly knew that (I just reinstalled GRUB into the MBR a few hours ago) so that was a typo, which has now been corrected.
I think we don't obtain the same Debian CDs because mine have always used GRUB, just like Knoppix. Actually I burnt today the Knoppix 4.0 DVD and used it to reinstall GRUB (see the paranthesis above).

OMG, my post number makes me look like some evil entity right now!