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GRUB consists of several images: two essential stages, optional stages called Stage 1.5, one image for bootable CD-ROM, and two network boot images. Here is a short overview of them. See section D. Hacking GRUB, for more details.
All `stage1' must do is to load Stage 2 or Stage 1.5 from a local disk. Because of the size restriction, `stage1' encodes the location of Stage 2 (or Stage 1.5) in a block list format, so it never understand any filesystem structure.
These are called Stage 1.5, because they serve as a bridge between `stage1' and `stage2', that is to say, Stage 1.5 is loaded by Stage 1 and Stage 1.5 loads Stage 2. The difference between `stage1' and `*_stage1_5' is that the former doesn't understand any filesystem while the latter understands one filesystem (e.g. `e2fs_stage1_5' understands ext2fs). So you can move the Stage 2 image to another location safely, even after GRUB has been installed.
While Stage 2 cannot generally be embedded in a fixed area as the size is so large, Stage 1.5 can be installed into the area right after an MBR, or the boot loader area of a ReiserFS or a FFS.
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