Sooo... as it turns out when you have a second hard-drive, and decide to install linux on it, and then decide that you don't need linux because you only use your computer for playing games and surfing the internet and need the 38 Gigs back for downloading anime... and re-format the hard drive that has linux on it... you might run into some problems...
so... apparently, this master boot record thing is stored safely wherever it is (primary master, bios, I don't know), but the actual GRUB bootloader I was running to choose OSes was on the drive I formatted... so the next time I boot up I get an "error loading GRUB" and it stalls...
Fortunately I have an automated installer build of XP so it was easy to fix(once I wiped the Egg off the installer DVD), and the computer always seems to run a lot faster when it's a fresh install... (this time I skipped the firewall installation.. and a buch of other junk that I have decided I don't need anyways)... and now TA:Spring gives me non-fatal in-game errors instead crashing out... so that's a bonus too...
Lessons Learned
Moderator: Moderators
The solution for next time you install linux: if your distribution's installer lets you (I know Mandrake/Mandriva lets you), assign a different, small ext2 partition (100 MB to be safe) to be mounted as /boot. This way, you can format the rest of the hard drive whenever you want, without losing the bootloader.
If you can't assign the /boot partition at install time, I think you can just mount it elsewhere, copy the files from the current /boot directory to that partition, then add the partition to be mounted under /boot in the /etc/fstab configuration file. Reboot and it should work (always have a rescue linux cd - usually installation disks can work as rescue disks - to be able to boot in case you mess up things).
If you can't assign the /boot partition at install time, I think you can just mount it elsewhere, copy the files from the current /boot directory to that partition, then add the partition to be mounted under /boot in the /etc/fstab configuration file. Reboot and it should work (always have a rescue linux cd - usually installation disks can work as rescue disks - to be able to boot in case you mess up things).
yeah... that 100 meg partition... I think I had that and deleted it.. it was formated in some non-windows readable way, so I had just dumped it without looking at it ... you know "I don't need any of that linux stuff anymore!" kinda thing.... in retrospect I probably could have fixed it with my debian DVD if I hadn't been in the "I don't need any of that linux stuff" state of mind too...
heheh... Linux grows on you. You always end up reinstalling it - that's why keeping that little partition is always worth it. Personally I have 40 Gigs out of 120 dedicated to my Linux install(s).
By the way my favorite tool for (re)partitioning my hard drive is my Mandrake/Mandriva install CD: it has the best visual partitioning tool, and lets you create and format windows fat32 partitions as well.
By the way my favorite tool for (re)partitioning my hard drive is my Mandrake/Mandriva install CD: it has the best visual partitioning tool, and lets you create and format windows fat32 partitions as well.