Grub can't find Windows 7 (no such partition) after Lubuntu install

I used gparted and selected gpt under device, advanced & select gpt over msdos(MBR) default partitioning....

But I also install gdisk as that is the command line tool for partitioning and listing partitions, etc.
sudo apt-get install gdisk


Since the BIOS Boot Partition ("bios_grub" flag set in GNU Parted) is used without a filesystem for storing GRUB 2 boot code "unknown" filesystem! may be shown in many Partition tools.
http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/walkthrough.html
http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/advice.html


https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GPT

I apologize. I should have given at least a small update last night. Things got really crazy here for a while yesterday. Right now I am doing a backup before I do anything. Most of that is downloads, but I might as well cut down on my internet bandwidth this time around. Backup includes both windows and linux nVidia graphics drivers as well as the different linux iso's.

I found the need for nomodeset inconsistent. Before I finally settled on lxle I could boot to some install DVD's without needing it. Others needed me to use it. The same goes for the different tool iso's I downloaded. Most were fine, but not all.

I also realized last night that I had converted from MBR to GPT on the 3Tbyte drive, but that was prior to me flattening it and doing things fresh. I wanted to go with defaults for everything and the Win 7 install went with MBR. I was going to do a conversion from MBR to GPT last night without backing up first when common sense kicked in. Which is why I am backing things up now. I would have done this last night but I had to set up a network drive plugged in to my wireless router. That was a steal I got a couple weeks back, a new 1 TByte WD MyBook Live for $40 :cool:

I did find a copy of the freeware EasyBCD which lets me work from the windows side of things. It is able to see both Win 7 and lxle installs. But I haven't really poked into it much.

But, it's time to get the kids off to school before I do anything else.

Thanks for your help so far guys!

To make a long story short, ended up cleaning the HD, windows won't install to a GPT drive, so I fix that and install windows. I then install lxle, watch it do everything, including grub install and update, And when that is done, I reboot hoping to get the dual boot screen .... and I get the grub rescue prompt. I complete the circle with bootrec /fixmbr and /fixboot. I am now back to where I was when I first started, and when I wrote this email. I have learned a lot over the last few days, but nothing that seems to help me fix this problem. I am in the process of getting the drivers and stuff updated in windows install.

The way things stand, I think my next step will be looking into easyBCD to see whether or not it would be useful to approach the problem from the windows side of the equation. Not sure if I will get to that tonight or not.

I am still open to your ideas. I know I can get my windows install back by using bootrec, so fire away, even if I have done it before. It could be that I missed something or did something out of sequence.

How big is your Windows partition? Maybe the linux parittion (or the /boot directory) is too far away from the drive head for the boot to work. Maybe you can make a small /boot partition right after the Windows partition (and the whole /boot partition should be within oldfred's first 137 GB), or make a small / (root) partition and a bigger /home partition or plan to put data into a separate data partition, so that the whole root partition of linux can be within 137 GB from the head end of the drive.

An obvious alternative at this stage is to try some other version of Ubuntu or flavor, re-spin or distro based on Ubuntu. LXLE, Bento, Bodhi, or Precise Gnome Classic Tweaks with LTS until April 2017 or Xubuntu with LTS until April 2015. You can also try Lubuntu 13.10, Xubuntu 13.10 or Ubuntu Gnome 13.10.

I've thought about switching flavours, but I also get really stubborn at times like this and dig my heels in. I haven't exhausted all possibilities yet. The reason I want to keep on going is because on the last install, easyBCD saw my Linux partition. When I added it to its version of Grub, there was a menu that gave me a choice between Windows and Linux. I configured the Linux entry wrong so that it didn't work, but the fact that I had a menu that gave me a choice tells me that dual booting with what I have is still possible.

What about the position on the disk 'surface', and the 137 GB limit?

I am actually reading up on the 137 gig limit. That is actually starting to make sense because of a couple of things that have been happening. Using EasyBCD I get a menu, and then when I select Linux, I get cmain() followed by a boot kludge error message with numbers and it stops looking for grub stuff. I will be back after playing with partitions and moving a few things around.

I am writing to you from within Lubuntu lxle. Before I got there, I got two different grub things from what I got yesterday. One said it was trying to find a file and gave a list, but I suspect it was pointing to a wring drive or directory. The second one I got said it was a limited version of Grub and that I could use TAB to get a listing of commands, etc.

I had tried to use easyBCD but that was not successful at all. I just got a grub prompt. I did the bootrec /fixmbr and /fix boot. I followed that by booting to the boot repair disc, and that did the trick.

It took a little longer than I expected because I didn't resize my partitions properly the first time to get under the 137 gig limit. But even then I got the grub prompt with the explanation about using TAB.

This has been a most interesting journey. I appreciate all the help and suggestions. I have rarely been this stumped by a problem. I will do a quick boot to windows and then come back and mark the thread as solved.

In windows. I'll mark the thread solved.

Congratulations :KS