Hi Hans The rescue mode of the Debian Live CD has a grub installer. In the end all I had to do is give it the device file for the hard disk.
I'm not sure if Windows did appear in the grub menu after reinstalling. But I ran grub-update and it did show the next time around. Since the rescue mode is not particularly user-friendly, I will get RIP, thanks for the hint. And thanks everybody for the advice! Gustavo On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 3:27 PM, Hans-J. Ullrich <hans.ullr...@loop.de>wrote: > Am Sonntag, 26. Februar 2012 schrieb Brian: > > On Sun 26 Feb 2012 at 13:34:12 -0430, Gustavo J Mata wrote: > > > > I recently installed Debian on a new hard disk. Although I rarely used > > Windows I kept a 20 Gb partition to +install it, just in case. > > > > I've found out that if I do install Windows, I won't be able to boot > > Debian. Although it appears that this +can be fixed, I want to make sure > > I know what I'm doing before risking having to start all over again. > > > > Any hints? > > > > Have you got a USB stick handy? Using fdisk make a Linux primary > > partition on it, or part of it. Format the partiton ext2 (mkfs.ext2). > > > > Mount the partition you have created: > > > > mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt > > > > Install GRUB to the MBR of the stick: > > > > grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sdb > > > > This will create /boot/grub on the stick and put GRUB's files there. > > > > Copy /boot/grub/grub.cfg to /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg. Boot from the USB > > stick. Can you get into your expected Debian? > > > > The sdb is on my machine (not yours) and I'm using testing. I'm unsure > > whether --boot-directory is --root-directory on Squeeze. Read the manual > > for this. > > > > I've no idea what Windows does when it installs but if it leaves the > > other partitions undisturbed you should be able to get Debian running > > and put GRUB back on the hard disk's > > Hi Gustavo, > > in this case I am using R.I.P. (Rescue is Possible), which is a > livefile-CD for > those purposes. Also you can use the debian installer CD in rescue mode as > well, but my tries did not succeed with it (just because I was not quite > experienced with it). > > RIP includes a detailed manual, how to restore grub on the drive again. > > Just google for RIP, it is free and open source. > > Good luck! > > Hans > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact > listmas...@lists.debian.org > Archive: http://lists.debian.org/201202262057.13768.hans.ullr...@loop.de > > -- «La ignorancia, aliada con el poder, es el más feroz enemigo que puede tener la justicia.» (James Baldwin) Visite mi Blog en Apartaderos <http://apartaderos.blogspot.com>
