Re: [Bug-grub] FDISK /MBR

[Jason Thomas]

win2k doesn't seem to overwrite grub from my experiences I have been
able to work around this with fdisk /mbr, since that is not working for
you, you may want to look at using dd to zero out the mbr and the boot
sector of the windows partition, there should be info on doing that in
the mailing list archives.

On Thu, Jul 25, 2002 at 01:25:55AM +0000, Linds ? wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have installed GRUB on my /hda drive in order to boot 2 versions of Linux 
> on /hda2 and /hda3 and it was working fine.  However I am now trying to 
> reinstall with Windows 2000 on the /hda1 and it requires several self 
> starting reboots as I did not have this version of windows installed 
> before. When I first tried installing I assumed that Windows 2000 would 
>  simply over-right the boot sector/mbr and I would use a floppy to boot 
> Linux and re-install GRUB.  However, I am unable to over-right GRUB in the 
> boot.  I have tried installing Windows 2000 3 times and every time it 
> reboots I see the word GRUB and the boot process stops there.  So it 
> appears I have partly overwritten GRUB as it wont boot the PC either but it 
> remains an obstacle to my installation.  I has also tried FDISK /MBR, FDISK 
> /CMBR 1, and SYS A:\ C:, which copied the DOS files, but none of these 
> things have replaced GRUB and I still boot to "GRUB" and then nothing else. 
> (I have only one hard drive.)
> 
> About the only thing I can think to attempt is doing a DEBUG to destroy the 
> MBR and partition table on the drive and hope that if I replace all the 
> partitions as they are now I wont lose any data.  But of course this is 
> very risky and I do not wish to attempt this if there is another solution.
> 
> One comment I must now make is that although I like GRUB better then LILO, 
> as it is mush more flexible and simpler by design, LILO did make a backup 
> of the boot partition that could be restored on un-installation.  (I may 
> have found the reason for that particular feature.)