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I'm using an IBM ThinkCentre with their Rescue and Recovery software.
According to IBM, I can't install any other OS w/o impacting the
ability to use R&R.
Below is IBM's reply -- is there any way to install Linux without
breaking R&R?


"Regarding your recent question about loading a second operating system
onto your machine and the impact this may have on your ability to use
the
Rescue & Recovery application; we are not aware of any dual boot
configurations which will work correctly with Rescue & Recovery. In
addition, the only two operating systems currently supported with R&R
are
Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

In order for Rescue & Recovery to function properly, the software must
be
able to load components into the Windows OS and it must have access to
the
hidden partition and Windows Preinstallation Environment. Rescue &
Recovery currently requires 8 contiguous free sectors within the MBR
(Master Boot Record) and non-standard partitions involving more than
one
operating system can fail to maintain the integrity of the MBR
sufficiently for use by ThinkVantage Technology applications such as
Rescue & Recovery.
....
Additional considerations regarding Rescue and Recovery v3.0 can be
viewed
at URL:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...tyle=lenovo&ln
docid=MIGR-61190

Please reply to the newsgroup.

Thanks

As long as you have an available partition, other than the R&R partition
and the Windows partition, you can install there. If you don't have an
available partition you can repartition Windows to get one. If you are
worried about overwriting the MBR you can use Windows multi-boot feature.

What is the R&R partition actually used for?

David Gurvich wrote:
> As long as you have an available partition, other than the R&R partition
> and the Windows partition, you can install there. If you don't have an
> available partition you can repartition Windows to get one. If you are
> worried about overwriting the MBR you can use Windows multi-boot feature.
>
> What is the R&R partition actually used for?

If the OS wont boot up, it'll automatically boot up into a special
mode, which would allow some utlities to be run - including restoring
the system.

Windows multi-boot doesn't use the MBR? Of course MS' website only
describes how to set up Windows multi-boot with MS OSes... Are there
any websites which talk about using Windows multiboot with Linux?

Thanks

I don't remember the specifics as I prefer using other boot loaders.
However, you need a bootsector image that points to the OS partition that
you want to boot. I believe you could actually use grub for that.

Before you go looking into that, see if you can boot into the R&R
partition using grub from a livecd. If you can, then you needn't worry
about overwriting the MBR as you could always access the R&R partition.

On Thu, 01 Dec 2005 17:57:30 -0800, danr_18 wrote:

>
> David Gurvich wrote:
>> As long as you have an available partition, other than the R&R partition
>> and the Windows partition, you can install there. If you don't have an
>> available partition you can repartition Windows to get one. If you are
>> worried about overwriting the MBR you can use Windows multi-boot feature.
>>
>> What is the R&R partition actually used for?
>
> If the OS wont boot up, it'll automatically boot up into a special
> mode, which would allow some utlities to be run - including restoring
> the system.
>
> Windows multi-boot doesn't use the MBR?

Since the Windows boot loader is already on the MBR, using it ( instead of
lilo/grub ) is less likely to interfere with access to the R&R partition.

> Of course MS' website only
> describes how to set up Windows multi-boot with MS OSes... Are there
> any websites which talk about using Windows multiboot with Linux?

Google on "Windows boot loader linux". I haven't done it, so I can't say
if any reference is better than another, but that will turn up tons of
info.

Probably the safest, least intrusive way would be to install Linux onto a
2nd hard drive, leaving the original untouched, and use a boot loader on a
floppy for Linux. Some distributions offer this as an option during
setup, IIRC.

--
- Matt -

On Fri, 02 Dec 2005 02:57:30 +0100, <danr_18@yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> David Gurvich wrote:
>> As long as you have an available partition, other than the R&R partition
>> and the Windows partition, you can install there. If you don't have an
>> available partition you can repartition Windows to get one. If you are
>> worried about overwriting the MBR you can use Windows multi-boot feature.
>>
>> What is the R&R partition actually used for?
>
> If the OS wont boot up, it'll automatically boot up into a special
> mode, which would allow some utlities to be run - including restoring
> the system.
>
> Windows multi-boot doesn't use the MBR? Of course MS' website only
> describes how to set up Windows multi-boot with MS OSes... Are there
> any websites which talk about using Windows multiboot with Linux?

I don't know about that, but Grub does overwrite more than just the sector
zero. It "embeds" the "stage1_5" file into 15 sectors or so, I guess it will
take the ones the support mail told about.

It is quite possible that you could install grub into the partition,
in which case Grub will not be the teh one to get controll transferred to
it from the BIOS during boot.

Windows has a file boot.ini, where you can specify a list of partitions you
want to boot from. I don't know for sure, however, if it does chain properly
into Grub on a partition, does anyone know? I seem to remember having seen
the answer is yes, I'm not sure.

-Enrique

danr_18@yahoo.com wrote:

<snip>


> operating system can fail to maintain the integrity of the MBR
> sufficiently for use by ThinkVantage Technology applications such as
> Rescue & Recovery.
> ...
> Additional considerations regarding Rescue and Recovery v3.0 can be
> viewed
> at URL:
> http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...tyle=lenovo&ln
> docid=MIGR-61190
>
> Please reply to the newsgroup.
>
> Thanks

Assuming you are creating new partitions, install grub to the *partition*
where /boot resides. Then in fdisk change the active partition to
the /boot partition. Set up grub to boot windows for you as well. This
will leave the R&R and Windows untouched because you are telling the BIOS
there is actually a different active partition. I've done this work around
on other systems.

On Fri, 02 Dec 2005 11:20:01 +0000, Matt Payton wrote:


> Probably the safest, least intrusive way would be to install Linux onto a
> 2nd hard drive, leaving the original untouched, and use a boot loader on a
> floppy for Linux. Some distributions offer this as an option during
> setup, IIRC.

Better yet, move the present Windows drive, otherwise untouched, to the
slave position on the first IDE controller, make the new drive master,
install Linux on the new hda drive, and install grub in the MBR of hda.
You get the standard grub menu, with the choice of Linux or Windows, and
no floppy to mess with, or lose.

I boot five Linux and four Windows OSs like this, with the Windows drives
on hde, and hdg. Any repairs to Windows will only overwrite the MBR of the
drive that Windows is installed on, and will not overwrite the MBR of hda,
leaving grub untouched.

--
imotgm
"Lost? Lost? I've never been lost... Been a tad confused for a
month or two, but never lost."