Booting - Installation?

[lonewalker]

Hi all i'm a newbie. I wanted to install Fedora on to a new hard disk but i do not want grub or lilo to be install in the MBR because i have xp on the other drive. And also i may be removing this drive; which i'm installing to from time to time. I do not want xp unable to boot when i remove the new drive. What should I do?

[budman7]

When you install, install to the root partition.
You will get an option to make a boot floppy. You will need to do this in order to boot linux.

Or, you could search on this site for directions on how to boot Linux with ntldr.

Or, if you have a WinXP cd(NOT A RESTORE DISK) you could just install Grub to the MBR, and when you want to remove it.
Put in your XP cd, When prompted, type "R" for repair, when you get to the ommand prompt, type FIXMBR, then your orignal ntldr will be back.

[ThoughtVelocity]

Or you could try installing GRUB or LILO to the linux partion only while not touching the MBR and use the software from the link below. It's very easy to setup within window$ which you are probably comfortable with, plus you can put the bootmanager on a floppy and run it that way if you are really nervous about tainting the MBR as I was.

http://gag.sourceforge.net/

[Chromatic Distortion]

Or... If you are wary about poking around in your MBR, leave it the way it is, and (dare I say it), use MS's ntldr for booting to either windows or linux.

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+NT-Loader.html

{Also: when in linux -- backup your MBR by doing this->
dd if=/dev/hda of=~/very.important.mbr.file.img count=512
To restore it, ->
dd if=~/very.important.mbr.file.img of=/dev/hda count=512
(be sure to add the count thing, or be prepared for a long wait)
Be careful with the dd command, and read the manual to see all the damage dd can do if not used right}

[demetri007]

...or have the bios select the drive to boot from.

[Chromatic Distortion]

whoops, that's dd if=/dev/hda of=~/very.important.mbr.file.img bs=512 count=1