Haven't read this whole thread so apologies if this is not relevant but..Then we have the problem with grub and grub2 not being the same?
which use which. Does not my one year old puppy 3 use the old grub and not the new grub needed for Vista? I know nothing I just remember vaguely something warning about grub and grub2 not the same.
To date all puppies use grub-legacy (the old grub.)
If you have another linux distro installed and use that one for booting then it doesn't matter if it uses grub-legacy or grub2. Both work although they are different.
AFAIK you can boot Vista using either grub2 or grub-legacy.
I believe that grub4dos is based on grub-legacy.
HTH
Dave