Grub on MBR. Running Debian. WinXP is installed. Want to dual-boot.

From: Jonathan (jonjo002_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 06/12/04 

Date: 11 Jun 2004 15:22:33 -0700

Hi!

I was installing Debian today for the first time. Previously I had
only WinXP installed. I used the 110 MB Debian-installer beta 4, and
after a few hours my installation was almost done. I now had the
following layout of my one and only hard drive (ide):
partition 1: winxp (fat32)
partition 2: debian (ext3)
partition 3: linux swap

At this point, the debian-installer said it didn't find any more OS's
(though WinXP was installed) and asked if I wanted to install Grub on
MBR. I thought, why not? I mean, the WinXP-partition would still be
untouched and I could probably change the list of boot-systems later
on from inside Debian.

So, as I'm writing this, when I boot my computer Grub is giving me the
alternative of booting Debian or Debian (failsafe). I can boot Debian
and use it and it works like a charm. I can access my FAT32
WinXP-partition via /windows, so "everything is still there" ;)

Now, I want to be able to boot WinXP again. The problem is: currently,
I don't have a /etc/grub.conf, which I should have (according to sites
on Internet)? Is it just to create the file at /etc/grub.conf and fill
it with good stuff and then reboot? But where does Grub currently get
its boot-list from then, since no grub.conf exists as of now?

Since I don't want to f/u what already works (Debian), I would be very
glad if someone could write a very basic grup.conf-example I could
use!

BTW, what does it actually mean that I installed Grub in master boot
record? What are the consequences? Should I have installed it
somewhere else?

Thanks in advance

//Jonathan

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