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I have seen a lot of information (particularly on various implementations
of GRUB) about how to get a boot selector program that helps to boot USB
pocket drives where the machine BIOS will not support the boot, as in the
case of my laptop.

I want put a boot selection program (GRUB or like it) on the hard disk
that boots Win XP. Clearly it will move or relocate the XP boot/loader to
another location, or in some way hook into that loader to prevent it from
running.

The runs the boot loader selection program then presents a list of the
bootable options (device/partition): in my case it will ask me to select
whether to boot from the USB pocket drive or from the hard disk.

I suppose the boot selection program could even be on a countdown timer
that defaults to a bootable OS specified on a device/drive and its
partition if the user makes no selection (such as the user powering on and
getting a sandwich or doing something else during the default boot up).

I need to know if the boot selection program also REQUIRES that the USB
pocket drive with bootable OS be plugged into the machine before the boot
selection program is run (i.e., before power up), or if the pocket drive
can be inserted and then the program list of bootable options can be
"refreshed."

Also:

* If such a boot selection program exists and can be configured and placed
on the hard drive where the XP system is, what is the best way, or what
are the options or limitations for placing it?

I would prefer downloading and running some kind of XP program (EXE) that
writes the code/image directly to the boot sector, and also
locates/installs the rest of the code/data to an appropriate place the
hard drive. I suppose it would re-locate the XP booting program.

Alternatives I have seen are writing images---that must be bootable----to
floppies (my laptop has no floppy drive), to USB pocket drives themselves
(doesn't work in my case clearly), and to CDs (does work in my case). I
don't know if from the bootable image that one then modifies other
bootable devices through a user interface.


Notes:

* My laptop (HP/Compaq nx7010) has /no/ BIOS update that supports booting
from a USB connection. It only supports CDROM and network booting beyond
the hard drive. The machine has no floppy (will fit a SD storage card
though, but not boot from it...as near as I can tell).

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.misc.]
On Wed, 21 Feb 2007 11:12:10 GMT, Patient Guy staggered into the Black
Sun and said:
> I want [to] put GRUB or [something] like it on the hard disk that
> boots Win XP. Clearly it will move or relocate the XP boot/loader

Nope. GRUB's stage 1 generally occupies the MBR, with stage 1.5 in the
slack space between the MBR and the start of the first partition. The
'Doze bootloader lives in sector 0 of the 'Doze partition.

> [I want GRUB to] ask me to select whether to boot from the USB pocket
> drive or from the hard disk.

If your machine can't boot from a USB device, nothing you do to GRUB
will help. GRUB uses BIOS functions to read sectors. You *could* have
your /boot on the machine's disk. /boot can be really tiny, about 40M,
so it's no problem to use the gparted LiveCD to resize your machine's
'Doze partition so there's space for /boot.

> I need to know if the boot selection program also REQUIRES that the
> USB pocket drive with bootable OS be plugged into the machine before
> the boot selection program is run (i.e., before power up), or if the
> pocket drive can be inserted and then the program list of bootable
> options can be "refreshed."

Huh? If the BIOS can't read sectors from USB devices, it won't matter.
Once a Linux kernel image has been loaded from /boot using BIOS calls,
it can have its / and /usr and /home and /var and everything on any
device the kernel can access. (USB, SCSI, NFS, whatever.)

> If [GRUB] exists and can be configured and placed on the hard drive
> where the XP system is, what is the best way, or what are the options
> or limitations for placing it?

Put it in the MBR. Easy, simple, easy to remove with FDISK /MBR or
FIXMBR. GRUB can chain-load practically any x86 OS, so long as the
bootloader it chainloads is on a BIOS-accessible drive.

> I would prefer downloading and running some kind of XP program (EXE)
> that writes the code/image directly to the boot sector,

You're talking crazy talk, man. Use GRUB. That's what it's designed to
do.

--
And I ruthlessly pay as little money as possible for as many french
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-- tps12 on kuro5hin.org, 06/14/2002
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see