GRUB Question

[LeBo]

I have Windows Vista on my primary hard drive now with my secondary hard drive empty (250GB). Can I install Linux on the secondary drive without installing grub on the windows drive. BTW, I can change boot drives during
boot up with a boot menu. I do not want my Windows MBR overwritten with grub on the Vista drive. Is this possible?

[dAVE]

Yes, If you can enable your BIOS to give you a choice of which hard drive to boot from, this is usually set by selecting no hard drives as default. Disconnect the hard drive for windows and install linux on the other hard drive. Reconnect the windows hard drive and reboot. Dave

[LeBo]

Thanks dAVE, I'll give it a try..

[AMDave]

If you have Vista installed first
http://apcmag.com/5046/how_to_dual_boot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_ first
James' article deals with Ubuntu, but is similar to most linux distributions.

But you asked for something specific, and you can install grub to the start of the linux partition instead of the MBR during the install process on most linux distro's.
Then use James' instruction to ad linux into your Vista boot options:

If instead of GRUB you want Vista's bootloader to be in charge, load up the Vista installation and install EasyBCD. Go to “Manage Bootloader”, then “Reinstall the Vista Bootloader”, an GRUB is overwritten. You can then configure the Vista bootloader to add Linux to the boot menu.

If you have linux installed already and are adding Vista then this may be useful
http://apcmag.com/5045/how_to_dual_boot_vista_with_linux