[ILUG] Re: Recuperating my MBR.

[Joseph Kiniry]

Hi Paul,

--On 20 March, 2005 13:50:04 +0100 Paul Linehan <plinehan at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I recently reinstalled XP Pro, but the bloody thing
> seems to have overwritten my MBR and I can
> no longer access my Linux OS.

So many people learn the hard way. :\

> How do I get my MBR back so that I can see my
> Linux as an option when I boot up? I am not
> a Linux expert by any means, so please keep
> explanations of the step1, step2, step3 variety.

Boot off of your Linux install disc, choose the "rescue linux" option 
(e.g., for FC), chroot to your root disk as indicated by the directions 
that are printed on the screen, run "grub-install", then reboot.

Which distro are you running?  The above is the generic directions for 
fixing the problem, but each distro has a slightly different solution 
depending upon which boot manager you are using, etc.

Next time you should think about backing up your MBR to a floppy or CD-RW 
for a quicker fix.  Of course, one would hope that being borked once by 
Microsoft in this way is enough to learn to never let it happen again. :)

Joe
-- 
Joseph R. Kiniry
Dept. of Computer Science, University College Dublin
http://secure.ucd.ie/