Tech Info:
Master Hard Drive w/ Win XP
Second Hard Drive w/ Red Hat 8.0\
Dual Boot with Grub 2

Problem:
As usual, my windows box got infected with a virus while my linux drive is working perfectly. The problem is so bad I need to format my windows drive and clear the virus out.

Where is grub located on my drives?
Is it on my master windows drive or my linux drive?

If I reformat my windows drive, will I have to reinstall grub?

After reformating my windows drive but before reinstalling grub, will I be able to access red hat without a boot disk?


I know these are tough questions but I really do not want reinstall both windows and linux.

Thanks,
Mack

> Where is grub located on my drives?
Either in the "MBR", which is just one (first sector) on each HD.
Or on the "active partition". A partition is made active, or you can check
it, with "fdisk".
Most likley you have GRUB installed in the MBR.

> Is it on my master windows drive or my linux drive?
Don't know for sure, but probably on the first HD, i.e the windows drive.

> If I reformat my windows drive, will I have to reinstall grub?
Theoretically no if only the windows partition is reformatted, and the MBR is
left intact. But I guess that the windows installation program will rewrite the MBR,
so; yes, you will most likley have to reinstall grub.

>After reformating my windows drive but before reinstalling grub, will I be able to access >red hat without a boot disk?
No, not if the MBR if rewritten.

L Ekman

I've reinstalled Windows with the CD that came with the computer and it behaved itself very well. It didn't touch the the master boot record or my Linux partitions so it's certainly possible. Good luck.

Thanks