GRUB repair on dual boot system
 

Hi all,

Last night i installed FC2 on a PATA drive while WinXP SP2 sits on a SATA drive (no partitions/logical drives exist on my system, each OS is given the entire HDD). I did pass the CHS parameters in order to bypass the "disk geometry problem" and continued with the rest of the installation to completion. On reboot my system boot straight into Windows and i was not given the chance to chose my preferred OS. What happened to GRUB?

I need to mention that on the Boot Loader Configuration screen i checked Windows as the default boot OS. Should i have ticked both OSs or should i have left both unchecked?

My assumption is that GRUB is installed on the PATA drive BUT when i changed the boot sequence in the BIOS nothing happened.

I suppose i can run a repair installation however i need to know what exactly to do and most importantly how to tell GRUB to install itself on the SATA drive.

Many thanks,

You can install GRUB from Knoppix:
http://www.knoppix.net/

Enter the grub shell as root from the bare console and use the install command. Make sure you refer to the correct directory for it to find /grub/grub.conf (if you have a /boot partition) or /boot/grub/grub.conf (if not)

HTH,

Samsara

it is more likely you chose to install grub to a partition rather than to mbr.

I caution you not to install grub into SATA until you have tested pata. that way you can change the bios boot back to sata if grub fails for you.

Also research how to backup your SATA or repair when you do install grub.

as that means we want bios pata then sata it changes your menu.lst or /etc/grub.conf file Do you see what I mean?
ie when you change your bios again, you need to edit your menu.lst grub file to change the hd info

OR you have to change your device.map file which is easier.

2) when you say the entire drive do you mean you have only one partition and no swap partition?

3) do you have a boot disk to get into linux?

read this if you have time to give you an idea of the structure of your menu.lst/grub file

I prefer commands to install grub as you get responses.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...troubleshooter