Windows corrupts Grub on Dell

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

I have a Dell Optiplex 170L desktop machine, set to dual-boot Sid and
WinXP, using grub.

As long as I boot into Debian, no problem, but if I boot into Windows,
the next time I reboot, grub just goes into an infinite loop of
rebooting. I briefly see a mention of grub stage 1.5, then reboot.

I can fix the problem by booting of a Kanotix LiveCD; that's not the
problem.

The problem is that once I boot back into Windows, the corruption returns.

I found the same problem on an Ubuntu forum
(http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-23519.html); his solution
was to give up on grub and use Windows XP's boot loader.

I've thought about switching to lilo, but thought I'd ask you folks first.

I suspect it may have to do with the extra partition at the front of the
drive that Dell uses for its diagnostic utilities, but that's just a
guess out of ignorance.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

-- 
Kent West
Technology Support
/A/bilene /C/hristian /U/niversity