Moving bootloaader from MBR to ubuntu root partitiion

[Goh Lip]

On Saturday 20,November,2010 12:28 AM, Trey Sizemore wrote:
> I have recently installed Ubuntu 10.10 on a machine with 3 SATA drives.
> Ubuntu was installed on /dev/sda with the root partition being sda1.
>
> I did not see an option when installing for choosing where to install
> the bootloader, so it installed on and overwrote my existing MBR where I
> had a 3rd party boot manager for multiple OSes.
>
> How can I re-install Ubuntu's bootloader to /dev/sda1 so I can
> re-install the 3rd party bootloader and launch each desired OS?
>
> I tried using grub-install but get:
>
> trey at ubuntu-desktop:~$ sudo grub-install /dev/sda1
> [sudo] password for trey:
> /usr/sbin/grub-setup: warn: Attempting to install GRUB to a partition
> instead of the MBR.  This is a BAD idea..
> /usr/sbin/grub-setup: warn: Embedding is not possible.  GRUB can only be
> installed in this setup by using blocklists.  However, blocklists are
> UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged..
> /usr/sbin/grub-setup: error: if you really want blocklists, use --force.
>
> Thanks!

So, use force   :)

sudo grub-install --force /dev/sda1

Trey, need to warn you that unless you know how to reinstall back the 
3rd party bootloader, your system will be unbootable.

Good luck - Goh Lip

ps: try to make the grub-rescue cd first
sudo grub-mkrescue --output=anyname.iso

or you can use the normal livecd method
if your system is unbootable

ps: what 3rd party bootloader are you using?