Preserved Topic: Yay Me

Well, after a few weeks of trying a finally got a installation of Linux Red Hat to work

Only thing is, i think i missed out setting up a boot loader when i was installing it. The only way i can get into my linux partition is to use the boot disk i created. When turning on the computer it boots straight into my WinXP partition. I don't want to have to use the boot disk everytime i want to access Linux but i dont feel confident enough to install a boot loader. I done a search on the Red Hat webiste and found this. It all looks very complicated to me.

Is there a way to wipe the MBR and set it back to normal if i **** this up completely?

At the moment though i'm just happy to have a working installation of this. If it means using a boot disk for the time being; so be it...

[edit] fixed grammar [/edit]
[edit2] if this is in the wrong forum, please move it... thanks [/edit2]

[This message has been edited by Nolp (edited 01-10-2003).]

well, back in the old days, all you had to do was boot from a dos floppy (windows bootdisk, as they're now called),
type in fdisk /mbr,
and you had a working dos boot record.

So, I suppose, with a windows boot disk that has fdisk on it (make it actually is on there when you hit control panel/software/make bootfloppy (sorry, don't know what's it called exactly in the english version of windows) ), you'd be on the safe side.

so long,
Tyberius Prime

PS: This post contains no gurantees of any kind.
PPS: You could probably always use the 'restore installation' mode of the windows XP setup.

You may be better off using a WinXP boot disk.

Alternatively, try Partition Magic/Boot Magic.

Good luck.

I would advice you to try out LILO (nice little mini-HOWTO here) instead of GRUB. LILO is (in my opinion) easier to install, use and configure. There is also easier to find good documentation on LILO since RedHat is the only distro (I think) that uses GRUB.

If the changs to the MBR turns out not to be working you can always install RedHat again and then have it install a bootloader during the installation. I've done that a couple of times and never had any problems so far...


_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"

[This message has been edited by Veneficuz (edited 01-10-2003).]

well if he has a boot disk to get into redhat, it doesn't matter if he fucks up his MBR.

He can always still get into Redhat with that disk.

I like grub, and i hate lilo.

Used to be Redhat always used Lilo and only Mandrake used grub.

I guess Redhat has wised up since then, eh?