duffmckagan mckagan@gmail.com wrote:
Moreover, you can still get that GRUB installed to the MBR, then get the Cent OS working, and then patch the Kernel to include NTFS Modules. Then add the required lines to the /boot/grub/menu.lst file and get windows working.
You do _not_ need NTFS support in GRUB to boot Windows. GRUB will merely use the chainloader to pass off boot to the NTFS partition, even though it can't read it.
BTW, note there are _issues_ with GRUB and Windows NT5.1 (XP) Service Packs / Hotfixes. It seems that on its bootable drive (what MS calls the "System Drive") on a "Basic Disc" (legacy BIOS/DOS Primary/Extended/Logical disk slicing), it uses portions of the MBR to store "hidden info." It will overwrite portions of GRUB. If you re-install GRUB, it will overwrite portions of these hidden areas, and XP SP1+hostfixes or SP2[+hotfixes] will not boot.
The conditions seem to vary from system to system, but I have run into it regularly now -- especially with many SP1 hotfixes and definitely with SP2. There also seem to be some conflicting hotfixes, especially SP2+, that constantly change things (even on a 100% Windows XP system). If I had to guess, and based on my views of the MBR with a hex editor, I think Microsoft is still trying to be compliant with the new ATA48 spec (lont story).
But _regardless_, I find that by keeping my "system drive" (C: filesystem) with the NTLDR, BOOT.INI, etc... XP partition within the first 32GiB (at least when geometry is <4096 cylinders, =255 heads and =63 sectors) of the hard drive will typically work.
I literally had a situation where XP SP1 was booting fine in the first 64GiB, then I loaded some hotfixes, and it refused to boot. Sure enough, upon inspection of the "damaged" (non-GRUB booting) MBR (which I made a copy of before re-installing, and then losing the ability of chainloader to work), I noticed the same bytes as SP2.