[ale] error booting XP after dual boot install of Ubuntu 7.10

[Robert Reese]

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
On 4/11/2008 at 1:48 AM Brian Pitts wrote:

>Robert Reese wrote:
>'disk-fixing' and MBR-writing.  Thus, GRUB would have been destroyed. 
>And trust me, that's *so* easy to do with a Windows machine!
>
>If you can make this happen, then PLEASE report it to ntfsprogs [0]. 
>According to the ntfsresize manpage, "Defragmentation is NOT required 
>prior to resizing because the program can relocate any data if needed, 
>without risking data integrity." In my experience, ntfsresize is a very 
>conservative program which is safe to use without doing anything to 
>Windows beforehand.

I don't trust Microsoft's tools to do that, and certainly not ntfsprogs.  It may work better than MS's stuff, but this is *data* we're talking about; even if it is backed up it is still a pain to restore.


>I've never heard of Windows spontaneously writing to the MBR (windows 
>installation is of course a different matter), but I doubt I've seen it all.

Windows doesn't spontaneously write to the MBR.  What happens is that a system check is performed and damage is deemed to have occurred.  The Windows self-repair system is initiated and it attempts to fix the installation.  Part of that self-diagnostic analysis is to check the MBR, which is why it seems to happen without warning even if a system has been fine for days, weeks, or even months before.

By the way, it's pretty easy to fix GRUB once Windows knocks it out. Annoying these days, but easy.

Cheers,
Robert~

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