Failed to reinstall Grub

[Xirowei]

Recently i just format and reinstall Windows XP on Drive C.
Afterward i boot into Ubuntu Live CD and type below command:

sudo grub
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0,5)
grub> root (hd0,5)
grub> setup (hd0)
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)"... 16 sectors are embedded. succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+16 p (hd0,5)/boot/grub/stage2/boot/grub/menu.lst"... failed Error 12: Invalid

But it failed in the last stage? Previously when i format and reinstall Windows XP on Drive C, if i follow above commands it can success reinstall the Grub. But this time it failed to reinstall the Grub. May i know what is my problem and how should i fix it?

[arist0tle]

Check out SuperGrub. It has helped me in several such circumstances. Just google it, download it, and burn it to a cd. It might take a minute to figure out, but it works really well.

[VMC]

Boot up using ubuntu livecd and type the following from a Terminal:

sudo fdisk -l

copy the info back here.

[Xirowei]

Boot up using ubuntu livecd and type the following from a Terminal:

sudo fdisk -l

copy the info back here.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
omitting empty partition (5)

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x14d614d5
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 2550 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 2551 19457 135805477+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 2551 3826 10249438+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 3827 3989 1309266 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 3990 19457 124246678+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

[VMC]

Okay, so it looks like your ubuntu is on sda5. When you boot up, do you see a Grub booting menu?

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

[caljohnsmith]

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
omitting empty partition (5)

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x14d614d5
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 2550 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 2551 19457 135805477+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 2551 3826 10249438+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 3827 3989 1309266 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 3990 19457 124246678+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

So is sda5 your Ubuntu partition I assume? If that is the case, you should be using (hd0,4) in Grub's World, not (hd0,5).

[Xirowei]

Check out SuperGrub. It has helped me in several such circumstances. Just google it, download it, and burn it to a cd. It might take a minute to figure out, but it works really well.

I had just using SUPER GRUB to FIX the Grub loading problem. Afterward, in Windows XP I installed "Ext2IFS_1_11.exe" to grant access to Ubuntu installation partition. I navigate to \boot\grub\menu.lst, open up menu.lst and correct the information from:

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=55a88a7e-1df4-4a44-bbbc-6fe536270423 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
quiet

To:
title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=55a88a7e-1df4-4a44-bbbc-6fe536270423 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
quiet

Now i finally able to boot into Ubuntu from the Grub loading screen!