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[bayouman Profile]

I have posted this allready under another topic where I thought it was most appropriate to go. Then I discovered the advice about opening another topic, so I apologize for the double posting. I'm really in dire need of some help ...

First off - I'm a linux-kinda-guy, but I do admit there are times when having windows available is an advantage.
I have used dual-booting a lot - the way we get our computers from the IT department is windows, windows, windows on the whole frigging disk!

Solution?
Well, with XP no problems.
1) boot off a live linux cd (grml is my favourite)
2) tar off the entire windows partition to an external usb-drive
3) repartition disk, usually:
-1: 256M for boot purposes (ext2)
-2: 16-30G (for windows), set up as vfat! (no issues with ntfs-writes)
-3: swap (roughly 2xmemory)
-4: extended
-5: 16G - first linux distro
-6: 16G - second linux distro
...
-last: whatever is left - common 'user' area for all linuces

4) set partition #2 as 'active'
5) now the tricky part - I cant use mkdosfs on partition #2, because it will not boot. However, I do have an ancient xp-cd which I use to 'install' xp - or rather, I take it as far as letting it format partition #2 with vfat. Whenever it starts copying stuff, I reboot (power off/on works fine)
6) boot from live cd again
7) install grub and make the following menu.lst
default 0
timeout 10
title windaes expee
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1
8) I untar the previously tar-file from the external usb-drive and I'm good to go! (well, I have to fix c:\boot.ini first to boot from partition #2 rather than #1)
9) install some linux distro, but _only_ to the appropriate partition (#5 for the first) and install any boot-loader on the first sector of the root filesystem
10) boot from live cd again:
mkdir /mnt/boot; mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
mkdir /mnt/boot/archlinux (say)
mkdir /mnt/sd; mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/sd
cp /mnt/sd/boot/* /mnt/boot/archlinux
vi /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst (update to boot from sda5)

title archlinux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /archlinux/vmlinuz26 ro root=/dev/sda5
initrd /archlinux/kernel26

And there we are - really the only 'bad' moment is not being able to use mkdosfs :-(

OK, I just bought one of these new-fangled triple-core computers with vista preinstalled all over the 320 gig disk. I was up to my usual tricks, but this time it obviously did not work! To be on the safe side, I had also saved the mbr and even tried to replace the first 446 bytes of it (seeing I had changed the partition table) - but to no avail :-( (and yes, I did format it as vfat with my old xp-cd, but then it complains about not finding ntldr)
However, replacing the mbr (other than the partition table ought to bring it back almost to scratch, but it doesn't seem to have done so. And - vista was also originally on the 2nd partition this time - the first was used for recovery (also saved that on my usb-drive)

So - does anyone have _any_ suggestions on how to make my vista boot?
(and yes - I _have_ read all the posts in this thread, but everyone talks only of shrinking the windows partition, not repartitioning). And obviously (I hope) I don't have any vista cd's.
I presume that vfat is a no-no as far as vista is concerned?