GRUB not loading on bootup going straight to Windows

Commander Quan · 02-02-2007, 01:56 PM

I currently have windows XP installed on the master hard drive of my computer and I reciently have installed FC6 on a slave drive the instillation seamed to work fine but when I reboot the system GRUB never loads and it boots straight into XP
I've reinstalled FC on this disk about 3 times all all 3 times it does the exact same thing I used to have redhat 7 on this disk and it would boot to GRUB fine but for whatever reason I had to format the MBR and have only used windows for the last year. What am I missing here?

pljvaldez · 02-02-2007, 02:21 PM

You have to install grub to the MBR of the first hard drive (/dev/hda).

Commander Quan · 02-02-2007, 02:25 PM

When I installed FC I could swear that I had it set to overwrite the MBR. I'll go home tonight and try again to make sure.

pljvaldez · 02-02-2007, 02:33 PM

Just make sure it overwrites the MBR on the first hard drive, not on the second (where it is installed).

pixellany · 02-02-2007, 02:40 PM

If it is not obvious that the installer is going to put grub on the first drive, you can always put it on a floppy.

Also, you should be able to install grub from the install CD. Boot from the CD and--as soon as it is up a running, type ctrl-alt-F1. This should get you to a command line.

Here are the steps to install grub from any Linux command line:
I'm assuming IDE/PATA, and Fedora all on one partition (/)

Code:

grub    starts the grub shell
root   (hd1,0)   Tells grub that "home base" is on the first partition of the 2nd drive
setup (hd0)

If you have FC6 setup with a separate partition for /boot, then the "root" statement above needs to point to that partition.

Now you have to edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file to make sure it is setup correctly.