l33t wrote:

because if what you say is true (grub cant recognise vista boot loader) then how else could it work? the only ohter OS i have installed (besides vista) is xp pro_x64...(and of cousrse suse) so if grub cant recognise vista, but it can xp pro, and of course recognises suse, then it *has* to be the xp_pro boot laoder thast handing control over to some files somewhere on the vista partition (in the BOOT folder i would think)

it works because the Vista Bootloader sets itself to run prior to the old bootloader and only allows one to access the old bootloader through itself. You can override this by using a switch with bootsect or by fixing XP's bootloader. The vista bootloader installs itself to where the XP bootloader was (but doesn't overwrite it) so when GRUB chainloads the bootloader, it is seen as a call for what is currently on that drive, which defaults to what vista installed.

i get it now...

Fantastic guide, imnuts. In fact, it convinced me to join the community!

I do have a question. If I have Linux installed first, and then I install Vista...the next time I boot, won't it boot into Vista?

So, I'm thinking if that's the case, I won't be *able* to get into the grub configs!

Hello and welcome to PROnetworks unpocoloco! Please stop by our Introduction Area so we can welcome you properly.

As to your question; initially yes, you will be unable to access your Linux, BUT you won't have to reinstall, you can simply boot your Linux CD and "repair" the grub loader, then edit it to add an entry for the Vista bootloader. I did this on one of my systems

Eh, I am having a problem with the Vista installation on my machine after installing grub I get a "winload.exe" error when trying to boot Vista..

What gives?

unpocoloco wrote:

Fantastic guide, imnuts. In fact, it convinced me to join the community! I do have a question. If I have Linux installed first, and then I install Vista...the next time I boot, won't it boot into Vista? So, I'm thinking if that's the case, I won't be *able* to get into the grub configs!

windows will erase grub and install its own boot loader to the MBR
there are several guides on how to fix this, and if you do not know, i (or somebody else) will gladly post the steps required to fix grub

to be honest tho, it really isint that hard, IIRC its as simple as a Linux live cd (almost any one will do) and then entering the GRUB shell and then rooting to the partition that has the grub files, then installing grub to the MBR then restart.

I recently was dual booting XP and Linux, and I just installed Vista over my XP partition. However, now (as expected) I lost my ability to boot into linux and it just boots directly to Vista. However, in my Computer, I can no longer see the Linux partition at all.

How do I locate this partition? Can I get back into Dual boot mode without formatting the linux partition and then re-installing linux?

Thanks

l33t wrote:

unpocoloco wrote: Fantastic guide, imnuts. In fact, it convinced me to join the community! I do have a question. If I have Linux installed first, and then I install Vista...the next time I boot, won't it boot into Vista? So, I'm thinking if that's the case, I won't be *able* to get into the grub configs! windows will erase grub and install its own boot loader to the MBR there are several guides on how to fix this, and if you do not know, i (or somebody else) will gladly post the steps required to fix grub to be honest tho, it really isint that hard, IIRC its as simple as a Linux live cd (almost any one will do) and then entering the GRUB shell and then rooting to the partition that has the grub files, then installing grub to the MBR then restart.

would you mind postnig these steps? I really appreciate it. And will this work assuming (as i said in my above post) I cannot even see the partition in windows?

Thanks

sure,

this is a pretty useful guide (it is a bit outdated tho)

guide: http://www.sorgonet.com/linux/grubrestore/

as for the basic steps

you need to get to a properly equipped shell (aka most of them)
knoppix or any other live CD should work, i use SUSE 10.1 install DVD and boot into recovery mode

once you are at the shell, you need to login as root and type "grub"
you are now at the grub prompt

1) find out where the grub boot files are located by typing
"find /boot/grub/stage1"

2) you now need to "root" into those files by typing "root (hdX,Y)
where X,Y are the numbers that you found above. X is the HD (probably 0) and Y is the partition

3) then you need to install it. do this by typing "setup (hdX)" where X is where you want it installed (look at step 2, X refers to a HD number (usually 0)) where the MBR is

assuming there were no errors, you should now be able to quit and reboot.

Sorry kind of new to the whole dual boot here.

I have 2 SATA drives, one is currently running vista, i want to put Fedora Core 6 on the other. How would the above procedure change?

Thank you for the help.