HOWTO: Restore GRUB (if your MBR is messed up)

[ultrageeky]

Phew, this is a long thread...

Haven't read the lot so someone else may have pointed out some of this.

Have a look at

http://linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php/...pair_your_grub

Try supergrub it may help
http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org/

The next alternative to a complete re-installation is the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD). There's both a Linux version and a Windows version. Both can be useful if only to allow access to files. http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

The last thing I would try is to install on another partition, sometimes this will fix the issues, and at least, will give access (possible access) to files on the system.

I've done all the above in the past. When using SuperGrub, when you edit the "root" drive pointer details remember that you can alter the drive numbering more than once i.e if you change it and it doesn't work, change it again until you find the right drive details. Try hd0,0 or hd0,1 or hd0,2 or hd1,0 or hd1,1 or hd1,2 and so forth.

If I've helped, drop me a thank you because I often post my solutions to problems I've had; and without feedback, I don't know how well I've helped others. No feedback, no more help.

As a side note, set aside a separate drive (not partition) for all personal documents. I used to do this in Windows and I've taken this to Linux too. Remember that the "home" directory is only small (few GB) and is designed to make it easy for us to back-up our personal settings. Just copy and paste it somewhere safe (like a DVD) and when you need to back-up your system, copy and paste it back!

Regards,
UltraGeeky

[mikh]

Isn't it easier to do this:

1. Pop in the Live CD, boot from it until you reach the desktop.
2. Open a terminal window or switch to a tty.
3. Type "grub"
4. Type "root (hd0,6)", or whatever your harddisk + boot partition numbers are (my /boot is at /dev/sda7, which translates to hd0,6 for grub).
5. Type "setup (hd0)", ot whatever your harddisk nr is.
6. Quit grub by typing "quit".
7. Reboot.

I may be missing your point though, if so, please forgive me

Hi,

I've reinstalled a WinXP and naturally my grub doesn't work anymore.
I've applied this method to restore the grub, with the following specific parameters:

1. livecd
2. terminal
3.

sudo grub

In the grub terminal:
4.

find /boot/grub/stage1

It returned

(hd0,5)

5.

root (hd0,5)

6.

setup (hd0)

At this point, the grub terminal displays this:

Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"...  15 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+15 p (hd0,5)/boot/grub/stage2
/boot/grub/menu.lst"... failed

Error 12: Invalid device requested

Any help will be much appreciated!

[joris1977]

Maybe i did something wrong, but i tried to reinstall grub with the hardy live cd as advised in this howto and ruined my install.

I did chose not to format in the partitioner, but it started installing without formating in my root partition and screwed up my install. It was a fresh install so there was no data loss, but it still sucks to do another install.

I am afraid this howto is outdated

[ubromtoo]

Try Super Grub Disk . I used the 0.9588 version just yesterday and

it worked very easily and quickly .

[ubestim]

I load the 8.04 desktop iso image from my hard disk
It is just another install process,
I don't know how to get to the desktop.

I have 2 alternatives:
one is Install the grub4dos on windows and then copy the entry of loading
Unbuntu and then paste in the menu.lst file in your windows system drive
The other one is :
when booting ,choose the grub entry
and then choose the:
find and load linux with menu.lst installed

This way you can load Ubuntu
It works fine for me.

The original menu.lst on your /boot/grub dir may like this:
title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic
root=UUID=c79d0c09-5538-43ac-8a16-b17a2e114809 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic
root=UUID=c79d0c09-5538-43ac-8a16-b17a2e114809 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic

title Ubuntu 7.10, memtest86+
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

[uuser]

I apologize if this link was posted earlier - I haven't read through this entire thread. In any case, I struggled with this Grub problem after resizing my Ubuntu partitions until I found this link:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/ubu...ub-gone-2.html

Worked perfectly for me...

[VMC]

Hi,

I've reinstalled a WinXP and naturally my grub doesn't work anymore.
I've applied this method to restore the grub, with the following specific parameters:

1. livecd
2. terminal
3.

sudo grub

In the grub terminal:
4.

find /boot/grub/stage1

It returned

(hd0,5)

5.

root (hd0,5)

6.

setup (hd0)

At this point, the grub terminal displays this:

Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"...  15 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+15 p (hd0,5)/boot/grub/stage2
/boot/grub/menu.lst"... failed

Error 12: Invalid device requested

Any help will be much appreciated!

I think if root returned root (hd0,5), then setup should be setup (hd6) and not setup (hd0)

[Rohen]

I think if root returned root (hd0,5), then setup should be setup (hd6) and not setup (hd0)

LOL I have exactly the same problem!!!!! Anyone knows what's going on here????

[mx727]

Isn't it easier to do this:

1. Pop in the Live CD, boot from it until you reach the desktop.
2. Open a terminal window or switch to a tty.
3. Type "grub"
4. Type "root (hd0,6)", or whatever your harddisk + boot partition numbers are (my /boot is at /dev/sda7, which translates to hd0,6 for grub).
5. Type "setup (hd0)", ot whatever your harddisk nr is.
6. Quit grub by typing "quit".
7. Reboot.

I may be missing your point though, if so, please forgive me

Thank you.
I accidentally wiped out the MBR, reinstalled Vista and lost GRUB.

I followed remmelt's steps from Damn Small Linux in a pen drive(I didn't have the Ubuntu live cd with me when that happened) and it worked out perfectly. now I have Ubuntu 8.04 running again!

[gordonngai]

I have just updated to ver 20 and Ubuntu does not boot in ver 20 from MBR. It works OK when I boot it from ver 19. How do I fix this problem?