Windows partition seems to have been broken

[oldfred]

I now I seem to have inconsistent results with command also. Part may be with grub 1.99 it now seems to need the same version to reinstall or else you have to do the full chroot.

This discusses the change with grub 1.99
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...stalling_GRUB2

In Grub 1.99, introduced with Ubuntu 11.04, Natty Narwhal, a new switch is available which more clearly defines where the grub folder is placed. The command above will still work with Grub 1.99, but the following command is preferred by the developers. The target directory in the command is the command into which the grub folder will be installed. By default, and without the switch, the location is /boot/grub. In these instructions, since the Ubuntu partition is mounted on /mnt, the target would be /mnt/boot/grub.
sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sdX

[darkod]

I now I seem to have inconsistent results with command also. Part may be with grub 1.99 it now seems to need the same version to reinstall or else you have to do the full chroot.

This discusses the change with grub 1.99
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...stalling_GRUB2

I was saying to use cd with the same version as the installed system, and it still didn't work. I don't know if they listened about the cd version.

I would stick to the old switch, unless separate /boot is involved in which case the new approach may be tried.

[oldfred]

Cannot disagree, they do say the old on is supposed to work.

Even thought it is only two lines and (to me) easily copied or typed from a liveCD, I now suggest Boot-Repair, partially as it also can run the boot-info script as well as make most simple repairs.
I still also may suggest Super-grub as it can boot into a broken system, that then you can repair from inside your install.

[subprogie]

It says at the top the bootloader is looking for /mnt/root/boot/grub which is not correct. I guess you misspelled it, oldfred wrote /mnt/boot and you might have put /mnt/root.

Try this modification of his commands:
sudo mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sdb

@oldfred, I am not so convinced about grub2 since Natty using --boot-directory since few times I have given the command like that, the users reported it not working. I believe it's still --root-directory. However, if you DO have separate /boot partition, I remember a case it was vice-versa, the --root-directory will not get you anywhere and you need to use --boot-directory. But that was a case with separate /boot.

I did this and everything remains the same. I dont want to be a pessimist but what are the odds that I am just up a creek here, I am creeping up on deadlines for school, and I am trying to decide if I should start working on other options as far as that goes. That being said, I really do appreciate all the help you guys are providing and like I said i don't want to sound like a brat or whatever. This is a pretty impressive community to spend so much time helping out

[darkod]

Already mentioned, but with two disks you need to make sure you are booting from the correct disk also. If you reinstall grub2 to /dev/sdb, make sure that is the disk you are booting from.

It has happened that people keep booting the broken grub from another disk.

[subprogie]

When i boot to my other harddrive it says error:file not found, grub rescue.

[oldfred]

Your pastebin from before showed grub1.97-1.98 in the MBR which is from 10.10 or thereabouts. But kernel is 3.2 which is Ubuntu 12.04 and uses grub 1.99? Are you using the most current liveCD to reinstall grub2?

[subprogie]

I am just using whatever came with my backtrack live cd

[oldfred]

Do not know what backtrack uses, the older grub may work, but do not know enough details to really know.

I might try to full chroot uninstall grub totally and reinstall.

chroot & grub uninstall & reinstall -drs305
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1581099

Another option is to use Supergrub which sometimes will boot a system bypassing grub. Then you could totally reinstall from inside your install.

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/

[subprogie]

well, I know it is kind of a messy way to fix things, but i just installed Ubuntu 12 alongside everything else, and when it put its grub on there it let me back in. So i guess that counts as solved heh.

Anyway, thank you all so much for your help and advice. It is awesome that people are committed to helping out the Ubuntu community here. I look forward to learning more about the linux world so maybe I can end up on the helping end rather than the help me end.

also, i dont know how to mark this as solved...