Reinstalling Grub after installing XP?

[irlandes]

I bought a new 100 GB HD for my old Dell Inspiron 2650, cost me $63, and passed a complete badblocks pattern test. I partitioned it with the Mandriva Install CD.

I was going to install XP from the recovery CD in the first partition. To my surprise I can't find that recovery CD, it may be at my home in Mexico.

I do want to go ahead and start installing Linux distros in the other partitions, and when/if I find the recovery CD put in XP later.

I have done a lot with GRUB, multi-distros, etc.

But I have no mental image of how to restore the MBR to Grub after I put in XP, which wipes out the Grub stuff in MBR.

I don't think I need a detailed instruction, though I have surprised myself at times by fumbling what seemed so easy.

A brief summary should get me started. Do I use a Rescue disk, or a live CD, to get GRUB in the MBR, or boot to the partition/distro which controls GRUB and do something there?

Thanks for any tips.

I will keep the original HD, and if I run into a need for Windows, which seems to be limited these days to certain Federal Government URL's, such as SS or FAFSA, or INS, which apparently are restricted to MS nonstandard java script found only in IE 6, , will have to put the old HD back in temporarily. But, it's a certain amount of work moving the kit back and forth.

[je_fro]

And you would need XP why?
Well if you're a security researcher and want a box full of bugs I suppose you would install XP and let it take over the MBR, then boot a livecd of some sort, chroot to a working linux install and issue
grub

grub> root (hd0,1) <--your boot partition
grub> kernel /vmlinux-blah-blah <--tab completion is your friend
grub> setup (hd0) <--bingo! your mbr is fixed

also search for saikee's grub tips on this site...a better grub tutorial you'll never find...

[irlandes]

Boot from live CD, chroot to existing linux, issue grub and type in basic grub lines. Got it, I think, i have noted that in my working journal. Thanks. As long as I can visualize the basic idea, I can usually do it with aid from google.

***
Why I need XP:

From my OP:

>>I will keep the original HD, and if I run into a need for Windows, which seems to be limited these days to certain Federal Government URL's, such as SS or FAFSA, or INS, which apparently are restricted to MS nonstandard java script found only in IE 6, , will have to put the old HD back in temporarily...

I have had several occasions recently to use Federal Government URLs.

1. Supplying our financial data for Federal loans for son in medical school.

2. Social Security/medicare URL's.

3. INS to input a name change for my wife on her green card (which is really pink these days).

In every case, large amounts of time involved total inability to accomplish needed tasks, and when I re-booted in XP, after the hour required to get XP working after not using it in months, accomplished the task almost immediately.

I conclude they are using MS non-standard Java script and I simply don't know how to make it work in Linux. Is there some way in Linux to beat those sick URL's? That would be neat. I know about faking i.d. in firefox for different browsers, but if they are using non-standard java script I don't know any way to beat it.

Normally, if I accidentally discover a URL that requires IE6, I just bypass it, but these government URL's are something I can't ignore.

This is wandering off topic, but I gotta' tell you, when I realize I am going to need XP, which doesn't happen often these days, I try to get my wife out of the house. She gets all distraught when I scream vile curses at my computer at the top of my lungs.

I boot it up, it starts b******g and f*****g. Pop-up balloons. Zone alarm wanting Internet access for stuff I already told it to permit, and save. Demands to permit MS updates, which now has taken a mean turn with that MS OS identity verification nonsense they are trying to put in my machine "for my own good." Every time I boot, it tries to slip that nonsense past me.

Avast goes sometimes through multiple update cycles. Ditto for Zone Alarm.

Then, of course, it demands I reboot!

I said an hour. That is an exaggeration. It only takes about 45 minutes including the eventual freeze up with all the updates, and 5 minutes to get it to shut down so I can reboot it. After that, it usually works okay for the task at hand.

Except for sick URL's, using non-standard java script, I can no longer think of any valid reason to use XP. Since Kubuntu 6.10 there isn't much else I can't do in Linux.

[je_fro]

Wow...can you give me an example of one of those "sick url's"? Something I can register at and navigate....generate errors and then I'll have a reason to b*tch out the webmaster...

[saikee]

If you want to be lazier than what je_fro has suggested you can omit the middle instruction.

That is boot up any Linux live CD (85% will have Grub inside). Activate a Grub shell by command "grub" and just type
root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0)
Partition root (hd0,1) is the parition where Grub can find /boot/grub

[retsaw]

Have you tried running IE under Wine? You can use IEs4Linux (http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Installation) to install it for you.

[DjDx]

To reinstall Grub or Lilo (LInus LOader), just put back the Mandriva CD in, boot from it, and click on Repair Mandriva... follow the instructions, it won't take long (about 5 minutes on my computer, but YMMV).