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Windows erases grub from hardisk?

Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 12:53 pm
by nekros
I've been doing a multiboot of Windows and Solaris. Having Windows on one hardisk and Solaris on the other. I booted from the Solaris disk after windows had finished updating and I get that annoying message saying "NTLDR is missing". OF COURSE ITS BLOODY MISSING! I NEVER HAD WINDOWS ON THAT DISK IN THE FIRST F***ING place! Anyway I've had crap like this happen a million times with Windows. I know more about linux than windows, but it seems to me that Windows just hates other OSes or partitions it doesn't recognize. Always happens after an update too. So does anybody know how I could prevent this problem in the future?

Re: Windows erases grub from hardisk?

Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 1:11 pm
by djmauretto
The best thing is to have a separate Hard disk for Win/Linux,
when tried linux i bought a HD for it.

Re: Windows erases grub from hardisk?

Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 1:57 pm
by nekros
Already said that's what I was doing.

Re: Windows erases grub from hardisk?

Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 4:01 pm
by JohnnyTheDon
I used to have the same problem. Which disk (Solaris or Windows) is selected as the boot disk by the BIOS?

Re: Windows erases grub from hardisk?

Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 4:56 pm
by madeofstaples
I've never had a windows update mess with the MBR, where grub is installed... that only happens when (re)installing windows...

It happened after an update for you, though?? or do you mean you upgraded windows...?

Re: Windows erases grub from hardisk?

Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:56 pm
by JohnnyTheDon
Updates will sometimes do it too. Vista SP1 trashed my grub install.

Re: Windows erases grub from hardisk?

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 8:25 pm
by AndrewAPrice
The Windows installer overwrites your MBR (it always does as far as I know, I don't think you can help it), so make a GRUB bootdisk or use a bootable CD to boot into Linux and reinstall GRUB onto the MBR. Or install Linux after Windows.

Re: Windows erases grub from hardisk?

Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 1:46 am
by xyzzy
NTLDR missing sounds like a BIOS configuration issue - I've had it several times. Make sure that the Solaris disk is the first HD the BIOS tries booting from (the BIOS usually has a Hard Disk Boot Priority list of some sort).