Boot loader

[tzetsin]

I had to reinstall windows a week ago, and i'm out on a job with very limited internet, i knew that my boot loader would be lost when i reloaded windows but there was no stopping it an it had to get done :( now i've been without Linux for a fricken week and i miss it terribly!!! is there a utility i could download that i could load on a usb stick or something that will put the linux boot loader back on my computer without having to download the whole distro?

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by tzetsin

I had to reinstall windows a week ago, and i'm out on a job with very limited internet, i knew that my boot loader would be lost when i reloaded windows but there was no stopping it an it had to get done :( now i've been without Linux for a fricken week and i miss it terribly!!! is there a utility i could download that i could load on a usb stick or something that will put the linux boot loader back on my computer without having to download the whole distro?

What bootloader were you using previously?

The best one and easiest one is called grub.

I'm sure your distro has it in its repository.

[tzetsin]

i believe it was GRUB an i'm sure its in its repository, but i dont have the install disk and was wondering if i can just download a utility that will alow me to reinstall the grub loader without having to download a whole distro as my internet connection at the moment really bites. I know i can reinstall the boot loader when i go home, and grab the disk, i just dont want to wait that long ;D

[enaberif]

easiest unfortunately is to download a live iso like Ubuntu or something and just do a rescue situation which is pretty simple.

[tzetsin]

ah, thats too bad. i guess i'll have to wait till i get home. Oh well, didnt hurt to ask eh?

[khelben1979]

Originally Posted by enaberif

easiest unfortunately is to download a live iso like Ubuntu or something and just do a rescue situation which is pretty simple.

Do you are anyone else here know how one is able to rescue the MBR from an operation like this? I installed Debian Etch over here.

I have 2 harddrives and grub installed it's bootloader on the WindowsXP disk and because of this the Windows XP is not able to boot anymore.

Any suggestions? Fast reply is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[Jack Rabbit]

The bootloader has to be installed on Disk 0 (the first disk) because that is how booting works. The Windows bootloader will not boot Linux but the Linux bootloader(s) are all compatible with Windows XP and can pass execution to NTLDR. You need to configure GRUB to allow you the choice of Debian or your XP partition. I am surprised Debian did not do this for you; most installers are better than that.

Google for "configure GRUB to boot XP" and look at the GRUB configurations sections. It should just be a matter of editing the menu.lst file. This may kick start you. Alternately, just reinstall Debian or a different distro and see if you maybe missed a stage.

I am not a GRUB wizard and it is hard to troubleshoot a computer you are not in front of. GRUB says it needs the /boot/grub/* files on the first partition of the first drive so this may be a problem.

[khelben1979]

Thanks for the information. Debian Etch is able to create a bootmenu using Grub since I've done it with older versions of Debian and it works fine, but this computer which I have been working with today and yesterday have had serious problems identifying any harddrives and sometimes even can't understand that there is a DVD burner inside.

I am going to change the gray IDE harddrive cables tomorrow and then I will try to install a Windows XP system from scratch on this harddrive mainly to see if it's possible but also because the person which I'm doing this for needs a working Windows XP system. He also wanted Linux but then I recommended him that he'll buy a usb harddrive in the future where he install Linux on instead. It seems less troublesome than fiddling around with IDE disks and noting down what is what and so on... (Where's the painkiller?)

He will hopefully get a new motherboard in 2 weeks and then things will be better I hope. This day hasn't been my best but perhaps I'll have more luck with fixing the PC in the coming days.