Installing GRUB after installing Linux on a second drive
I finally got around to installing Linux on my desktop PC. I had problems installing it on the same physical harddrive as Windows, so I forked out $100 for a new SATA 250GB drive.
I got the drive a couple of days ago and started installing Fedora Core 5. About 45 minutes later, I rebooted the system and to my dismay it booted directly into Windows. I realized that I may have gone through the installation process a little to quickly and forgot to change the setting to put the bootloader on the first disc.
I am considerably new to Linux and wasn't sure how to install GRUB bootloader so that it started instead of Windows. All you have to do is use any bootable Linux disc, in this case I just used the same DVD I that installed Fedora with, and at the boot prompt before the installation begins you type the following:
It then proceeds to ask you a couple of general localization questions. The installer will attempt to locate your partition that contains Linux. Once it does, it will mount it to the /mnt/sysimage directory. Once it does that, it will take you to a command prompt. Simply type the following at the prompt to change the root to your Linux install:
Once you have done that you need to type the following. NOTE: I am using sda in this example because I have a serial ata drive. If you have an IDE drive then you would use hda:
Unfortunately this did not work for me as I got this error:
After searching for the solution I found out I had to add a parameter to the install:
Once I did that and rebooted, it showed me my GRUB bootloader which worked for both my Windows and Linux installations. It was perfect.
Related reading:
Cheers.