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View Full Version : Redoing dual boot


Kirby of Doom
02-25-2004, 09:40 PM
I don't know if any of you guys remember my Linux escapades, but I really want it back!!! Only thing is that when I reinstalled XP it got rid of dual boot (stupid computer hog). So is there any way I can get it back with minimal complexity and minimal chance to screw everything up?
Flash Man
02-25-2004, 11:13 PM
I do know with Red Hat you can pop in the CD and boot it and it will rebuild your current Red Hat and rebuild the MBR. You also might be able to boot a Windows 98 Floppy and type fdisk /mbr and restore your "old" boot record. There is a possibility of booting a Linux floppy and reinstalling grub or lilo on your boot record, although I do not know how to do that.
AtmaWeapon
02-25-2004, 11:50 PM
Partition Magic. It's the only way to guarantee you won't fubar your WinXP. I use it and have repartitioned my drive a ridiculous number of times.
vegeta1215
02-25-2004, 11:59 PM
Partition Magic. It's the only way to guarantee you won't fubar your WinXP. I use it and have repartitioned my drive a ridiculous number of times.

Yeah, Partition Magic is nice.

What you can do after you partition your drive is install Red Hat (or whatever) and install LILO onto a bootable floppy. We did this for my teacher's computer at school. He can boot regularly and it brings up Windows XP, but if he boots with the floppy, he gets LILO, and he can chose to go into Windows XP or Mandrake Linux. In short, not touching your original MBR on the hard drive.
Kirby of Doom
02-26-2004, 12:34 AM
I don't want to reinstall Red Hat. I just want to get the dual boot to work again.
AtmaWeapon
02-26-2004, 12:52 AM
Then you need to try and get a hold of a LILO disk. I don't know the inner magicks of doing that, but it's your only hope. If you touch your WinXP MBR, I've heard some nasty horror stories. Granted, grub seems to start my WinXP fine, but no two computers are alike and your hardware cocktail could screw you.
vegeta1215
02-26-2004, 02:39 PM
During the Mandrake Linux install on my teacher's computer we missed the section about setting up LILO (it had been moved to a different part of the install sequence) so we over-wrote the original Windows MBR. But, we fixed it easily with a Windows XP install disc: http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug/2003/08/msg00088.html