GRUB Boot loader coming up

[Shunmugavel]

Hi Experts,

I have recently installed Fedora 17 in my PC using live USB. I have created the below drives which are mandatory for fedora linux,

1) Boot
2)SWAP
3) root

During the installation i haven't created the GRUB boot loader in C drive (where i have my windows xp installed and running). Now i want to go to my installed fedora linux operating system. How can i do that?

[stoat]

I guess the two basic options are 1) install GRUB as the default boot loader and let it boot Fedora and XP, or 2) configure XP's boot loader to boot Fedora.

It's also possible to use GRUB for DOS in XP to boot a Linux system.

[Shunmugavel]

I would prefer to try out the 2nd option. Can you please help me how to *configure XP's boot loader to boot Fedora*.

[stoat]

Well, I can't promise anything (except that option 1 would be easier), but the basic steps to configure NTLoader to boot Fedora are...

1. Confirm that your Fedora system is even capable of booting and running okay (a Super GRUB 2 Disk may be able to boot it).
2. Force GRUB 2 to install its boot loader in the first sector of the Fedora boot partition (with Fedora booted, run grub2-install --force /dev/sdxy; you have to figure out x & y).
3. Use the free and well-known utility BOOTPART to configure NTLoader to boot Fedora (more about that in the HOWTO, Method #2).

This is more likely to succeed if XP and Fedora are on the same hard drive. But in the end, this could turn out to be a lot of work for nothing. No promises.

P.S.: I would back up important things first. Also have the means and knowledge to restore the XP boot loader in case of a mishap with the grub2-install command.