Multiple bootable partitions

From: B Gruff (bbgruff_at_yahoo.co.uk)
Date: 07/07/05 

Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2005 12:01:27 +0100

I have 3 hard drives, hda, hdb, hdd.

hdd is just for data (2 large FAT32 partitions)
hda is the old Windows stuff, which I wish to keep, though rarely
used.
hdb is the Linux disk

I've been using SuSE 9.1 for a year, and it's been great.
However, I'd like to try some other distros now, and also move on (in
slow time) to SuSE 9.3.

The way that I would like to do this is by swapping hdb for a larger
drive, and keeping all the linux stuff there still. If I were still
using Windows (heaven forbid!) I'd do everything that I want to do
with Partition Magic and Drive Image, for example:-

- back up partitions by image files to another drive
- restore them as needed
- hide partitions before installing new
- boot by only having the Active partition visible.

I'm ALMOST there with linux, in that I have partimage and Qtparted
available to me. I can image my current 9.1 to a file on hdd.
I can then swap hdb for a larger disk (has a caddy, btw)
On hdb, I can create a swap partition, create a new linux partition,
and restore to it the image from hdb.

- but now how do I boot it?
Sure, I can create a boot floppy (GRUB) for the old system, but this
is a new drive, with different geometry, the partition will be a
logical one rather than a primary, and might be in a different place.

Sorry so long-winded. I'm simplifying the question down to the first
step, in that if I can do this with this partition, AND obtain a new
boot floppy, I think that I'd then be able to do everything else that
I want to do.

The question is, how do I get that new boot floppy with GRUB on it?

Bill

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