Reinstall WinXP on dual boot system
 

I find I need to reinstall the WinXP OS on my dual boot OpenSUSE/WinXP PC. I originally installed WinXP first, then OpenSUSE, as I'd been told that trying to do things the other way would be a problem.

As such, will I have a problem if I try to reinstall WinXP now? The HDD is partitioned, with WinXP in a separate partition, and GRUB 1.5 guides my to the choice of OS on boot.

If you re-install xp to the same partition it should not be a problem. One caveat, xp will overwrite Grub in the mbr so you will need to re-install Grub after the xp re-install. You should be able to use your OPensuse CD to do this (don't know which version you have?). Assuming xp on sda1, opensuse on sda2 enter the command 'grub' to get grub prompt (grub>), do this as root. Then enter:

root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0)
quit

If your partitions are not as described above you will need to make appropriate changes and if you are not sure, post before trying it.

The only problem you will face is that winblows will overwrite the grub bootloader. Make a copy of your current /boot/grub/menu.lst file. Do the reinstall, then use a GNU/Linux CD/DVD in rescue mode to restore the grub bootloader.

I'm using OpenSUSE 10.3

XP is on sda1

What should I backup menu.lst onto to ensure that the GRUB rescue can see it? Will a floppy be fine?

A floppy will work. Opensuse 10.3 has a Rescue option when you load the CD so select that. Enter 'root' at the prompt and the login will change to a rescue login where you can enter commands.

After various considerations, I'm going to take advantage of the opportunity to replace WinXP with Win2k instead, for reasons I won't go into.

Will this render my current menu.lst invalid, and if so can anyone give me some pointers on how to create a shiny new one when I start the grub command line from the rescue boot (from the CD)?

I'd guess that the following commands would work fine, without me needing to replicate the menu.lst:

root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0)
quit

Is that correct?

You are right if want to restore mbr and Suse is on sda2. You should not have to change the menu.lst, grub chainloads windows as long as the partition number stays the same.