[SC.LUG] GRUB Bootloader and 'MS Windows'

[Cockroft, John]

I too have multi-boot systems as unfortunately my work/development PCs
are all Windows based.  One useful disk structure I found was to have 4
partitions.  This is an example build on a laptop with a 40Gb hard drive
and 1Gb of RAM

1) XP (C: System), Linux (/dev/hda1 as /mnt/windows RO) - NTFS (16Gb)
2) XP (D: Documents), Linux (/dev/hda2 as /mnt/documents RW) - FAT32
(6Gb)
3) Linux (/dev/hda3) - EXT3 (16Gb)
4) Linux (/dev/hda4) - Swap (2Gb)

(All partitions are primary)

I set "My Documents" in Windows to point to D:\ (which is FAT32 based)
and put a symbolic link under my /home/xxxxx (ln -s /mnt/documents
documents)

I use GRUB to dual boot between the two system although I did use NTLDR
in the past.  Yes I know that I should have a separate /home but if you
rebuild then usually your .xxx files and directories need changing
anyway!

This means:

1) Document files are full read/write from both Windows and Linux.
2) Linux has read-only access to the Windows system partition.
3) Windows has read-only access to the EXT3 partition by using
Explore2fs
4) You can rebuild either Windows or Linux without affecting the rest of
the system or the documents.

-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Gibson [mailto:rcgibson at iee.org] 
Sent: 25 July 2005 16:07
To: South Cheshire GNU/Linux Users
Subject: [SC.LUG] GRUB Bootloader and 'MS Windows'

For various reasons I have to use a multi-boot system with MS XP Pro 
still lurking around.

I recently started to get problems with the screen totally freezing in 
'Windows', which turned out to be a motherboard hardware problem, but 
not when running Linux as it was only the grinding of inefficient MS 
code that pulled it down.  However when this was being fixed under 
warranty the Evesham technician made the interesting comment that on 
it's service training courses, MS recommends completely reloading the 
system every 18 months, as the only way to get rid of residual nasties 
that may be lurking after the inevitable crashes etc.

However, my problem is this, and I have tried looking in all sorts of 
places to glean information, but have found no mention.

Reloading Windows happily leaves my partitions intact, and only 
over-writes the primary Windows partition.  However it also pinches my 
GRUB Bootloader, and I can find no way of replacing it without reloading

my SUSE Linux.  Not a big chore as /home lives on another partition, but

a chore nevertheless.

Is there a simple way to restore the GRUB Bootloader after reloading 
Windows, either from a back-up on another partition, or a floppie?  Part

of my problem is I don't know where it is supposed to live anyway.

Another question, is loading a second (mainstream) Linux flavour as 
simple as loading it into an empty partition, allowing it to share swap 
and home with the other distros?

Any help gratefully received, and a round on me when I can escape to a 
LUG meeting.