[ubuntu-uk] Dell - was ubuntu-uk Digest, Vol 69, Issue 59

[Will Bickerstaff]

On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 9:55 PM, Neil Greenwood <
neil.greenwood.lug at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Apparently, it's not a problem with the installation process of either
> Windows or Ubuntu. There are some recent Vista and Windows 7 programs
> that implement their copy-protection by writing to an "unused" portion
> of the boot sector. At least, it's unused by Windows, LILO and Grub 1.
> However, it's a fairly vital part of the Grub 2 installation.
>
> Also, the Windows program keeps writing to that part of the disk every
> time you boot into Windows. So your whole computer fails to reboot
> every time you use Windows. Which stops it being a dual-boot machine.
>
> There was a post about the problem on Planet Ubuntu by the Grub 2
> maintainer. I'm afraid I've forgotten his name, since it was a few
> months ago now.
>
> Hope this clears up the mystery.
>

That's absolutely spot on (Bug #441941)  heres the link to his blog post
with some tips on how you can help identify what the 'nasties' are doing
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~cjwatson/blosxom/debian/2010-08-28-windows-applications-making-grub2-unbootable.html
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