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Old 02-Jul-2009, 11:06
rks171 rks171 is offline
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Default Installing GRUB after removing HDD

First off, here's a printout of the hardrives on my system.

Code:
Disk /dev/sda: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77825 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x87df9c9a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        1275    10241406   27  Unknown
/dev/sda2   *        1276        7649    51199155    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3            7650       77825   563688720    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            7650        9474    14659281   83  Linux
/dev/sda6            9475       10448     7823623+  83  Linux
/dev/sda7           10449       77825   541205721   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9dc96e9e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1           4       32098+  de  Dell Utility
/dev/sdb2   *           5        4865    39045982+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5               5        4865    39044096    7  HPFS/NTFS
Linux is installed on sda5, 6, 7 as you can see. Windows is on sda2, and sda1 is the EISA partition that came with my computer for resetting back to factory settings. sdb is a secondary hardrive used for backing up files. When I installed SUSE 11.1, GRUB was installed onto sdb for some reason. This is the HDD that my computer boots to during startup. I removed the HDD without remembering that GRUB was on it and during startup it went right to XP. So I booted from LiveCD, opened up a terminal and did the following:

Code:
# mkdir /media/root
# mount /dev/sda5 /media/root
# grub-install --root-directory=/media/root /dev/sda#
In place of #, I tried sda5 and sda1 when sda5 didn't work. Either way, this pops up the GRUB installer window. I tried selecting boot from MBR when I selected both sda5 and sda1, but either way, I get the same error during reboot after it says loading GRUB.

(hd1,4)/boot/message: file not found

Then it goes to an MS-DOS looking boot menu that lists OpenSUSE 11.1 and Windows. I try selecting either one and I get the error:

Error 18: Selected cylinder exceeds max. supported by BIOS.

I have a feeling it's my EISA partition, which is at the beginning of my HDD that's screwing stuff up by taking up all the cylinders at the beginning of my HDD, but then again, how does the Windows boot loader work then? BTW, I want to remove the secondary HDD, but I need to first get GRUB working from sda.
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