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#1 2011-08-16 23:24:34
- NegativeFPS
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[SOLVED] Installing GRUB - two HDDs dual boot
Hi all, I'm reading the beginners guide and all before installing Arch and I have a concern before I mess something up.
I have two HDDs, one has Windows 98SE installed on it, the other is empty and to be used to Arch.
My concern involves GRUB and the fact that it needs to be written to the MBR. I cannot back up the Win98 drive due to various reasons and the data is very important so I'm in a lame situation.
According to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … stallation
grub> setup (hd0) is used to install GRUB to the MBR. Won't hd0 contain my Windows partition as well?
How I be sure that installing GRUB to the MBR will not mess up my Window partition?
Last edited by NegativeFPS (2011-08-17 02:08:37)
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#2 2011-08-16 23:47:51
- cesura
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Re: [SOLVED] Installing GRUB - two HDDs dual boot
Simply install the bootloader to the Arch HDD (remember, MBR is just the first 512 bytes of any given drive), set your Arch HDD to boot first in your BIOS, add your Windows menu option to your grub configuration file, and viola, dual-booting Windows/Arch! 
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#3 2011-08-17 01:20:34
- NegativeFPS
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Re: [SOLVED] Installing GRUB - two HDDs dual boot
Bahaha of course! Thanks 
But just so I know for the future, the MBR cannot ever actually hold an OS, right? Since as you say it's 512 bytes, nothing larger than that can fit, correct?
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#4 2011-08-17 01:39:31
- cesura
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Re: [SOLVED] Installing GRUB - two HDDs dual boot
Not a problem, glad to hear you understand it all now. If you do deem this solved, could you please prepend "[SOLVED]" to the thread title?
Well, theoretically, it could hold an OS, but it would resemble a stripped down, 16-bit real mode OS with no actual use to most people. So to answer your question: no, no modern OS (*NIX, Windows, etc.) could possibly fit within that space. That's where grub is kept, stage1 to be exact. Stage1's main responsibility is to jump to stage2, as the bootloader is much too large to fit in such a confined space. The MBR isn't actually a partition like we would see today; it's simply bytes 0-511 at the very beginning of the hard drive. Partitioning software tends to completely overlook that space, probably for the better.
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