Debian Grub 1.99 alters BIOS (confirmed after formatting hard disk)

Linuxmun

Hi, I am a long time Windows user and recently try this Debian Wheezy OS. Burn Debian ISO in Windows environment and then select DVD ROM drive to boot first in BIOS.

The first installation of Debian (GNOME) was with multi-boot option that allows booting from hard disk and DVD drive. I then realise my BIOS was altered when the ACER Phoenix BIOS F2 button fails to response but there is the F12 button to select a unique multi-boot environment. I was then able to boot to FreeDOS to install a DOS environment which I then use to load a CD containing DOS BIOS which I then use to flash the ACER provided BIOS. My ACER Phoenix BIOS was restored. I still don't think Debian OS installation can actually alter my BIOS.

The second installallation of Debian (KDE) was only with hard disk booting option. I use ReFIND, hoping to boot to CentOS DVD but the Anaconda boot to command line interface and I don't know what to do do initiate the CentOS disc installation. I then use Live GParted to partition and format the hard disk, hoping the Grub 1.99 will be removed and my original BIOS restored. When I reboot, my BIOS F2 continue not to work with no multi-boot selection (F12) and then the BIOS shows "Operating System not found".

Is the BIOS altered to BIOS-UEFI?

what can I do now? Use my other computer to:-

Try to boot USB operating system?

Try to boot USB Grub?

Try to boot Phoenix Crisis (WINCRIS.exe)?

mfillpot

I have never seen a case of a a linux based system altering the bios. The standard Function key based commands in bios should works the same since the bios is unaltered, the real difference is that the bootloader (windows bootloader, grub, lilo, etc...) will overwrite the master boot record to give instructions telling the system what to boot, if you loaded a linux based system then the windows bootloader will no longer be in place, when it is removed the windows bootloader will still not exist. To restore the windows bootlaoder you can boot to your recovery disks and use the fixmbr command in the recovery terminal, however then the mulitboot will not longer work as windows ingores all other systems.

You can boot into a USB or DVD live Linux distro and use the terminal to boot your existing linux based OS and then rewrite the bootloader.

Can you please explain exactly what appears wrong and what you are expecting to accomplish?