Joe Hart wrote:
On Friday 29 June 2007 15:33:09 Rodolfo Medina wrote:Rodolfo Medina <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:In my computer the master boot record is installed in /dev/hda6. Suppose I want to move it and have it installed in /dev/hda9: is itpossible, and how?"Russell L. Harris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
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On my PC, besides the swap partition, I have one partition, hda1, for MS Windows and another five for Linux: hda6, had7, hda8, hda9, hda10. At the moment the `boot partition' is hda6 and I want it to be, say, hda9. Sorry if I can'y use the right words. Maybe I should say that the hda6 Grub boot loader is now installed to the master boot record of my hard drive whereas the hda9 boot loader is installed to the /dev/hda9 partition?There are more than one way to do this, but this will (should) work: #grub grub>root (hd0,8) grub>setup (hd0) grub>quithd0,8 = /dev/hda9, so you should be alright with those command. Note that the # and the grub> are the prompts.I want to do so beacuse: now I'm still using Debian Sarge, which is installed in hda6; I want to install Debian Etch in hda9; then when I'm sure that everything is all right with Etch I want to boot from hda9, so hda6 can be formatted again. I hope that now it is clear enough what I want. Thanks for any help Rodolfo
If I understand correctly, you have Sarge on a partition that you want to preserve, while using a second partition on the same disk to install Etch. Once you're happy with the Etch install, you'll redo the Sarge partition formatting to use with your new Etch install.
But you mentioned 5 partitions for Linux, the above is only two, so what are the other 3 used for? Will you need any of them for the Etch part, are they used with Sarge, or used some other way?
You need the answers to the above, which will modify to some extent what you do. But I think what you do is simply install Etch, selecting hda9 as the partition to install (the / filesystem for Etch), plus any of the other partitions (or none) depending on the answer to the question.
When you get to Etch's grub installation step, it will detect the Windows and Sarge installs and offer to setup grub in the master boot record for you. It should (if all works as expected) provide you with boot options for Windows, Sarge and Etch.
I said "should", but I don't expect any problems, I've done this type of thing several times, successfully. And this way, you don't need to worry about grub prompts or grub (disk,partition) numbering issues.
When you're happy with Etch (shouldn't take too long!-), you just edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file for Etch to remove the section that boots Sarge and to change (if needed) the 'default' boot number to match the number position for Etch in the boot section (look for lines beginning with 'title', near the end of the file). Reformat hda6 and you're done.
-- Bob McGowan
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