Will re-install affect things?

ginda · 06-09-2005, 04:41 PM

Im running a windows xp and suse 9.2 on a toshiba laptop. I need to re-install windows will this affect the bootloader should i back the loader onto a floppy?

acid_kewpie · 06-09-2005, 04:46 PM

yeah, windows will just stream roller through and nuke the MBR totally. but as you guess, just keep a bootdisk, boot back into linux and reinstall the bootloader. just run "lilo" as root if you're using lilo. you could also just take a copy of the mbr directly using dd and put it back on again after. there's a LinuxAnswer here that will give you the exact command for that.

equinox · 06-11-2005, 04:02 AM

To backup:

Code:

dd if=/dev/hda of=mbr.img bs=512 count=1

To restore:

Code:

dd if=mbr.img of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1