How to boot Linux from the Windows Boot Menu if you reinstall Windows

[ramesh]

Caveat: I found these instructions on the net somewhere and I have never tried it so don't blame me if things go horribly wrong.

Installing Windows NT/2000/XP along with an existing Linux installation .

1.Setup partitions.

Don't touch the linux partitions. No other precaution needed. also make the windows partition bootable.

2.Install Windows NT/2000/XP. Let it over write the MBR

3.Follow steps below:

Setting up the system to boot windows too.

now when you reboot , you will go directly to the NT/XP/2000 boot menu.

Don't worry , your Linux installation is safely sitting there.

Now boot using the linux boot disk / live cd

mount the non NTFS windows partition using the following commands

mkdir /mnt/windowsdrive
mount /dev/hda* /mnt/windowsdrive

where * is 1,4,5 etc.


Now use this command to get first 512 bytes of your root partition


dd if=/dev/hdaN of=/mnt/windowsdrive/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1


replace /dev/hdaN with your Linux root partition name (/dev/hda something). I asked you to note it down, right?

now boot to windows. find out the bootsect.lnx file from which ever drive u wrote it to using the previous command.Copy it to C:\

open boot.ini and add the following line to its end

c:\bootsect.lnx="Linux"

Reboot

Now you will see "Linux" showing up in your Windows boot menu.

When u choose linux it will load the linux boot loader (LILO/Grub which ever u installed.)

You may want to remove the "Windows" choice from the linux boot loader's menu. There is no harm if u leave it there

[leoandru]

I did something like this once.. play with the windows boot.ini file and got it working, but I prefer the grub or lilo boot loader so I just try to get those working instead.

[Gillion]

I think people should print this off.

Personally ... I always make a recovery CD from MONDO tools.

[pogi_2nr]

I have done this before too, it works mostly.

I think it gave problems when I had linux tucked away beyond a certain
sector on the drive or when it was on a different drive..

[g2cris]

I did something like this once.. play with the windows boot.ini file and got it working, but I prefer the grub or lilo boot loader so I just try to get those working instead.

yup, much simpler to fix grub/lilo than the boot.ini.