Is there a way to re-install /boot only?

[Star Shadow]

Hi,

I wanted to keep my Windows partition and boot loader intact (in case something went wrong with the install I would still be able to boot windows), so I put /boot on a USB Flash Drive and put grub on that to boot from USB. However, today my flash drive was fried and lost boot. The install auto-detected my Win 7 install and made a menu entry in that.

I have a BIOS based computer so I can't boot to GPT disks, which my second drive is since Windows 7 supports it natively. I have a 100 meg partition on my main disk that I could use as boot if need be.

My several questions are: Can I just put /boot files on my second drive which has Kubuntu even though it's on a GPT disk, or would I need to put the files in the 100 meg msdos based partition on the main drive. Then the next question would be how would I reinstall all the /boot files and have the grub.cfg file recreated and grub installed to the mbr of my main disk, thus overwriting the windows bootloader?

Thanks.

[Qqmike]

Re: Is there a way to re-install /boot only?

> If you want to boot a GPT disk using GRUB, it must be GRUB 2, not Legacy GRUB.

> By separate /boot partition means it contains GRUB files (/boot/grub) AND the kernel & initrd files. I don't see why a separate /boot partition is needed any more with the new BIOS's. Some folks do, however, use a separate GRUB (only) partition (=> GRUB files only under /boot/grub).

> The following how-to shows different methods using GRUB 2 but only addresses a separate GRUB only partition, not a full /boot partition. A full /boot partition will be more difficult to maintain under GRUB 2 than it was under GRUB Legacy.

GRUB 2 A Guide for Users
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3106368.0
See also the drs305 reference for more good /boot/grub/grub.cfg methods.

> How-to shows how to install the GRUB files to the MBR of your main disk using GRUB files from any location: sudo grub-install ----root-directory=/media/somedirectory /dev/sdX. That command sets up /boot/grub if it doesn't already exit and copies GRUB 2 files to it and installs GRUB 2 to the MBR of sdX using those GRUB files. If you want kernel & initrd in there, also, you have to copy them over.

> Now, I'm not sure what you will be doing, but you CAN mix GRUB 2 and GRUB: you can have one chainload the other, BUT only GRUB 2 understand GPT.

[Star Shadow]

Re: Is there a way to re-install /boot only?

By grub in my post I meant the default one that the v9.10 installer installed, so grub2. Since I had all of /boot on my flash drive I lost everything /boot when the flash drive was fried. Even modern bioses don't like gpt partitions, only EFI supports boots from GPT, but GPT is a lot better for SSDs, which is what I have Windows on and I eventually want to switch it too so I will rely on a new flash drive that I ordered.

So, how do I get back all of /boot from the v9.10 Desktop CD? I don't want to do a full installation again because I have Kubuntu set up the way I want it. I just want to install all of the /boot again.

Thanks.