Installer shouldn't be able to install grub on ntfs partitions

[Felix Miata]

On 2009/10/19 04:49 (GMT) Alan Searchwell composed:

> I always use the advanced options in the installer to install grub to the
> root partition of the distro I'm installing.

When you're multi-booting (more than one OS per system, as opposed to dual
booting, which is exactly two operating systems per system), it's nuts to do
it any other way. Putting Grub on the MBR is license for Windows to drive you
even more nuts than normal.

> Since I'm dual booting with
> windows, I then use grub4dos to boot into linux. This gives me a quick and
> easy method to restore the ability to boot linux after a Windows
> re-install since all that is required to set up grub4dos is to copy a file
> (grldr) to the Windows boot partition and edit Windows startup menus to
> launch that file.

You don't need to bother with grub4dos. dd can make a copy of your root or
boot partition's partition boot sector as a file. Copy that file to the
Windows boot partition (C:\), put a stanza for it in boot.ini, and ntldr will
offer it to you in its menu. http://fm.no-ip.com/install-doz-after.html

> Today I did an installation that had a weird partition table. The entries
> were:

> /dev/sda1   *           1        1275    10241406    7  HPFS/NTFS 
> /dev/sda2            1276        7476    49809532+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA) 
> /dev/sda5            1276        6024    38146311    7  HPFS/NTFS 
> /dev/sda6            6025        7269    10000431   83  Linux
> /dev/sda7            7270        7476     1662696   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disks typically vary in speed according to physical sector position on disk.
Usually the lowest numbered sectors perform best. The tail of the disk is
usually the worst place for swap. If Linux performance matters to you, don't
put Windows at the front if you can help it either. C: can be the 2nd, 3rd or
4th primary if you take the trouble to make it so, usually easiest by doing
100% of your ultimate partitioning in advance of any OS installs.

> Notice, no sda3 or sda4.

All that means is there are only 2 primary partitions on the disk. XdX1-XdX4
are always reserved for primaries, no matter how many actually exist. The
first logical is always #5, though the primary starting at the front of the
disk isn't necessarily always #1.
-- 
"   A patriot without religion . . . is as great a
paradox, as an honest man without the fear of God. . . .
			2nd U.S. President, John Adams
 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/