GRUB Error 18

OK, so I installed on the 250GB drive pretty much choosing all defaults. At reboot, I never got past GRUB, which failed with the dreaded Error 18.

A little research (I love the Internets) told me that the kernel resided in an area that can't be seen by the BIOS. The consensus seems to be that I need to setup a /boot partition at the beginning of the drive. (see here and here)

So, I'm starting over ... again.

(I can't tell you how many times I've tried using the wrong keyboard to answer prompts for the install. Having two of them is confusing!)

DISCLAIMER!! If you don't know much about partitions (like me), don't follow my instructions. This is more of a journal than a tutorial. It is likely that I will screw up something, and I don't want your loss of data on my conscience for the rest of my life. However, if you do know about such things, please critique my attempt in the comments.

I ran the normal install, except for these changes to the partition step:

When the first partitioner screen is displayed, choose Manually Partition Drive

Scary, but I'll try it

Delete the existing partitions

It's probably possible, and even preferable to do this without starting from a clean slate, but since I haven't done anything to the box yet, I'm not losing anything. If you don't know what you are doing and have something to lose, DON'T DO THIS!

Start creating new partitions

I selected the FREE SPACE for (hda)

The /boot partition

I'm using 300MB, Primary, Beginning, Ext3, /boot, and the bootable flag on

The main partition

245 GB, all defaults

The swap partition

Set 'Use as:' to swap area

Finish Partitioning and Write Changes to Disk

Here goes nothing!

Well, what do you know. It worked! (If I weren't such a refined gentleman, I'd type the expletives that flew out of my mouth when I saw the login prompt.)

Forget what I said earlier about not knowing about partitions. I'm an expert!