I broke it! How can I fix it?

[Rick Bowers]

At Friday 9/28/2007 10:26 AM, you wrote:
>On 9/27/07, Rick Bowers <rwbowers at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I just bought a new computer and have already broken it.
> >
> > The computer is an Acer Aspire and had Windows Vista installed.
> > When it shipped, it had 3 partitions: a hidden system restore
> > partition (sda1), C: (sda2) (1/2 the remaining space, with Windows
> > Vista), D: (sda3)(1/2 the remaining space, USER).
> >
> > I booted a live linux disk and re-sized and re-partitioned the D:
> > partition to two partitions; 64GB (D:) and 80GB (empty).
> > At this point, the computer still functioned normally.
> >
> > Then I made the empty partition an extended partition (sda4) and
> > created sda5 (76GB, "/") and sda6 (4GB, "swap")
> >
> > Next, I loaded an OpenSuSE CD and installed it to sda5.  When the
> > install process asked me where to install the boot loader, I told it
> > /dev/sda5.
> > Why?? Because my choices were MBR, root disk , or boot disk (sda5). I
> > did not want to put GRUB on the MBR because I wasn't sure what that
> > entailed. I did not want to destroy the hidden recovery partition, so
> > I chose my boot disk, sda5.
> >
> > Well, not the computer will not boot at all. A reboot simply displays
> > "Verifying DMI Pool Data ..........." then hangs. Forever.
> >
> > I'm technical, but don't (obviously) understand the boot process. I
> > can boot a live CD and, hopefully, recover. But I need help.
> >
> > Should I replace the MBR? Is it safe to put GRUB in the MBR? Will
> > that still let me boot to the recovery partition?
> > What are the steps to recover from my stupidity? I don't understand
> > GRUB at all so will need somewhat detailed procedures.
>
>I don't see how making partition changes would prevent the system from
>posting properly.  If you remove all the disks, does it still hang in
>the same fashion?  Can you boot off of a CD?
>
>Have you tried resetting the CMOS (either by pulling the battery for
>30 seconds, or some other mechanism)?

Well, apparently I'm pretty brain-dead. I can boot from CD, so I 
loaded a recovery disk and looked at the partition table. During the 
GRUB setup dialog, in addition to asking where I wanted GRUB 
installed, it asked if I wanted to set the boot partition (flag). So 
I set it to sda4. I've set it back to sda2 and can now boot properly 
to Windows Vista. Now I need to figure out how to properly install 
GRUB so I can multi-boot.

So...

Where should I install GRUB? MBR? Will that affect my sda1 partition 
where the recovery stuff is that Acer put there?
I've setup linux before, but never as a multi-boot setup.

Thanks,

~Rick

>--
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>L. Friedman                                    netllama at gmail.com
>LlamaLand                       https://netllama.linux-sxs.org
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