Ubuntu, Grub and the migration from Vista to Windows 7

[laur3ooo]

In an attempt to forgo Windows forever that lasted almost 4 months I installed Ubuntu 9.10 on my first hdd with special partitions for my root, home, music dirs. I installed Ubuntu having both of my hdd's connected. All went well. 2 weeks ago i decided i needed Windows once more so i removed my 1st hdd that had Ubuntu installed on it so as to install Windows 7 on the 2nd hdd and not to have my grub corrupted. It seemed Windows 7 had problems installing from a sata optical drive or something because it couldn't find the drivers for a storage device (even though i provided all the drivers relevant to my motherboard). After that i tried to install Windows Vista with the intent to upgrade to windows 7. I installed Vista on my second hdd without problems. After i made sure it installed properly and i did a clean boot of the system i plugged in my Ubuntu hdd and i wasn't surprised Ubuntu booted without an option for Vista. This was expected behaviour. We all know GRUB is, by defaut, in "quiet mode" on Karmic so i "unhid" the GRUB and added an option for Windows Vista and all was well again. Sometime after this i was planning to upgrade to Windows 7 because my clean install wouldn't work. So i removed once again my Ubuntu HDD to do an upgrade so as not to screw up GRUB or the MBR.

I then started the Windows install from within Vista with the intent to do a full upgrade and replace procedure but i was again haunted by issues. I was faced with SPWIZENG.DLL and autorun.dll errors when i stared the install and this seemed weird since my Vista and Windows 7 iso files come from my MSDN account. I got the same error after i re downloaded and reburned the Win 7 iso. So after some web documenting i used the (official Microsoft) tool that allows the transfer from an iso to a bootable usb stick. I started the upgrade from the stick and all went without problems. After i made sure all my Vista profile settings and files are on Windows 7 and i made sure it overwrote the Vista installation i did a clean boot of the system and after that i connected my first hdd.

Now i get some unnexpected behaviour. Since both of my Windows installs occured on the second hdd and without the Ubuntu one attached i was expecting to have Grub popup and default boot to Ubuntu (the situation was true for Vista). But i was surprised when the system booted showed a short MBR Error 3 message and booted to Windows 7. This might have ben expected if i installed Win 7 with the Ubuntu hdd conected but it was not the case. Even weirder is the fact that if i remove my Ubuntu Hdd Win7 boots without that MBR Error 3 message and if i remove my Windows hdd and plugin the Ubuntu one it boots without problems also. This behaviour might suggest i have Windows 7 on my primary hdd and and Ubuntu ont the secondary but it is the other way around.

Also both hdds are SATA set to IDE mode from the BIOS so it is not master vs slave cabling issue.

Thanks in advance and please read all of my post before suggesting something.

[darkod]

With more than one hdd it is important not only which OS is where, but also which bootloader you have on which disk. Very often you think one, and the actual situation is another.
Boot with the ubuntu cd (or usb stick) into the live desktop, download the script in my signature, move it on desktop for example and execute it in terminal with:
sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh

It will create results.txt file with detailed info about your boot process. Copy the content here and wrap it in CODE tags (with the text selected hit the # button in the toolbar above).

[laur3ooo]

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> No known boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda
sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sda6: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda6 starts
at sector 63.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sda7: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda7 starts
at sector 63.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sda8: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda9: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 9.10
Boot files/dirs: /etc/fstab

sda10: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext2
Boot sector type: Grub 2
Boot sector info: Grub 2 is installed in the boot sector of sda10 and
looks at sector 28437038 of the same hard drive for
core.img, core.img is at this location on /dev/sda and
looks on partition #10 for /grub.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /grub/grub.cfg /grub/grub.conf /grub/core.img

sda11: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Vista: Fat 32
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda11 starts
at sector 63.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sda12: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5e0522ca

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda2 * 63 488,392,064 488,392,002 f W95 Ext d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 76,999,545 188,249,669 111,250,125 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6 188,249,733 288,945,089 100,695,357 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda7 288,945,153 488,392,064 199,446,912 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda8 189 6,297,479 6,297,291 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda9 6,297,543 27,262,304 20,964,762 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 * 27,262,368 28,627,829 1,365,462 83 Linux
/dev/sda11 76,742,568 76,999,544 256,977 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda12 28,627,893 76,742,504 48,114,612 83 Linux


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/sda10 478ac052-5924-477b-a42e-d68bc11b3301 ext2
/dev/sda11 6A12-194D vfat ACRONIS OS
/dev/sda12 4bd1707f-3634-4cd0-8b6c-8882bc94caea ext4
/dev/sda5 5F81-7889 vfat
/dev/sda6 69C6-D703 vfat PROGRAME
/dev/sda7 53A1-DA2B vfat Jocuri
/dev/sda8 945cddf8-9997-4651-85b1-335e7c1c1256 swap
/dev/sda9 124a2ddf-8ffc-4755-9eda-31b3797938a8 ext4

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/sda9 / ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sda10 /boot ext2 (rw)
/dev/sda12 /home ext4 (rw)
/dev/sda5 /home/roman/Muzică vfat (rw,utf8,umask=007,gid=46)
/dev/sda7 /media/jocuri vfat (rw,utf8,umask=007,gid=46)
/dev/sda6 /media/programe vfat (rw,utf8,umask=007,gid=46)


=============================== sda9/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda9 during installation
UUID=124a2ddf-8ffc-4755-9eda-31b3797938a8 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot was on /dev/sda10 during installation
UUID=478ac052-5924-477b-a42e-d68bc11b3301 /boot ext2 defaults 0 2
# /home was on /dev/sda12 during installation
UUID=4bd1707f-3634-4cd0-8b6c-8882bc94caea /home ext4 defaults 0 2
# /home/roman/Muzică was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=5F81-7889 /home/roman/Muzică vfat utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# /media/jocuri was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=53A1-DA2B /media/jocuri vfat utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# /media/programe was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=69C6-D703 /media/programe vfat utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda8 during installation
UUID=945cddf8-9997-4651-85b1-335e7c1c1256 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

============================= sda10/grub/grub.cfg: =============================

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s /boot/grub/grubenv ]; then
have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,9)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 124a2ddf-8ffc-4755-9eda-31b3797938a8
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/white
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-17-generic" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,10)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 478ac052-5924-477b-a42e-d68bc11b3301
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.31-17-generic root=UUID=124a2ddf-8ffc-4755-9eda-31b3797938a8 ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.31-17-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-17-generic (recovery mode)" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,10)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 478ac052-5924-477b-a42e-d68bc11b3301
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.31-17-generic root=UUID=124a2ddf-8ffc-4755-9eda-31b3797938a8 ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.31-17-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-16-generic" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,10)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 478ac052-5924-477b-a42e-d68bc11b3301
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic root=UUID=124a2ddf-8ffc-4755-9eda-31b3797938a8 ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.31-16-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-16-generic (recovery mode)" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,10)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 478ac052-5924-477b-a42e-d68bc11b3301
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic root=UUID=124a2ddf-8ffc-4755-9eda-31b3797938a8 ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.31-16-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,10)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 478ac052-5924-477b-a42e-d68bc11b3301
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=124a2ddf-8ffc-4755-9eda-31b3797938a8 ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic (recovery mode)" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,10)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 478ac052-5924-477b-a42e-d68bc11b3301
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=124a2ddf-8ffc-4755-9eda-31b3797938a8 ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
linux16 /memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
linux16 /memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sdb2)" {
insmod ntfs
set root=(hd1,2)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set b45879265878e88e
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

============================ sda10/grub/grub.conf: ============================

title Windows Vista
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1


=================== sda10: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


13.9GB: grub/core.img
13.9GB: grub/grub.cfg
13.9GB: grub/grub.conf
13.9GB: initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
13.9GB: initrd.img-2.6.31-16-generic
13.9GB: initrd.img-2.6.31-17-generic
13.9GB: vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic
13.9GB: vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic
13.9GB: vmlinuz-2.6.31-17-generic
=========================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =======================

Unknown MBR on /dev/sda

00000000 e8 12 01 b9 f0 01 be 10 7c bf 10 06 57 f3 a4 c3 |........|...W...|
00000010 8b 4e 14 83 f9 0e 75 08 8d 5e 07 43 02 07 e2 fb |.N....u..^.C....|
00000020 8c 56 0c 8c 56 0e 75 69 8a 56 10 84 d2 79 62 e8 |.V..V.ui.V...yb.|
00000030 f6 00 bb aa 55 cd 13 72 6f 3b 5e 5c 75 6a d1 e9 |....U..ro;^\uj..|
00000040 73 66 b4 42 c6 46 02 01 eb 66 89 b6 f6 fe 8a 44 |sf.B.F...f.....D|
00000050 04 84 c0 74 0f 3c 05 74 0b 3c 0f 74 07 8a 14 80 |...t.<.t.<.t....|
00000060 e2 80 75 cb 83 c6 10 06 c4 5c 08 89 5e 08 8c 46 |..u......\..^..F|
00000070 0a 07 fe 8e f9 fe 75 d2 b0 31 c6 46 d7 50 88 46 |......u..1.F.P.F|
00000080 d4 be 6a 07 ac 84 c0 74 08 b4 0e b3 07 cd 10 eb |..j....t........|
00000090 f3 e8 81 00 88 46 11 be ae 07 3c 05 75 c6 cd 16 |.....F....<.u...|
000000a0 33 d2 89 56 08 89 56 0a e8 7d 00 72 1b b8 01 02 |3..V..V..}.r....|
000000b0 bf 05 00 8b dc 56 50 50 32 e4 cd 13 58 8b f5 cd |.....VPP2...X...|
000000c0 13 58 5e 73 03 4f 75 eb b0 32 72 b2 40 8a 66 11 |.X^s.Ou..2r.@.f.|
000000d0 9e 7b 04 c6 47 02 0e 72 35 75 0c 88 57 40 c4 4e |.{..G..r5u..W@.N|
000000e0 08 89 4f 1c 8c 47 1e 79 06 8a 4e 12 88 4f 25 80 |..O..G.y..N..O%.|
000000f0 c7 02 81 7f fe 55 aa 75 85 81 7f fa cd 19 75 09 |.....U.u......u.|
00000100 c6 47 fa e9 c7 47 fb 94 88 e8 1c 00 ff e4 74 ce |.G...G........t.|
00000110 88 57 24 eb c9 5d 33 c0 8e d8 8e c0 8e d0 bc 00 |.W$..]3.........|
00000120 7c 55 bd a2 07 fc fb c3 b4 08 52 06 cd 13 07 72 ||U........R....r|
00000130 33 33 db 8a de 8b 46 0a 33 d2 83 e1 3f f7 f1 91 |33....F.3...?...|
00000140 97 8b 46 08 f7 f7 42 87 ca 3b da 72 17 43 f7 f3 |..F...B..;.r.C..|
00000150 8a f2 86 c5 d1 e8 d1 e8 0a c8 d0 cc d0 cc 0a f4 |................|
00000160 84 e4 74 02 b4 41 5b 8a d3 c3 0d 0a 4d 42 52 20 |..t..A[.....MBR |
00000170 45 72 72 6f 72 20 00 0d 0a 00 72 65 73 73 20 61 |Error ....ress a|
00000180 6e 79 20 6b 65 79 20 74 6f 20 62 6f 6f 74 20 66 |ny key to boot f|
00000190 72 6f 6d 20 66 6c 6f 70 70 79 2e 2e 2e 00 00 00 |rom floppy......|
000001a0 00 00 10 00 01 00 00 7c 00 00 a0 fd 9f 01 00 00 |.......|........|
000001b0 00 00 80 00 00 35 0e 00 ca 22 05 5e 52 00 00 00 |.....5...".^R...|
000001c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 01 |................|
000001d0 01 00 0f fe ff ff 3f 00 00 00 42 45 1c 1d 00 00 |......?...BE....|
000001e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00000200


Now that i've looked at this log file i remebered i put the Ubuntu boot files in the /boot partition and i used to have Acronis OSS installed at some point but it would not recognize Vista or Windows 7 so i uninstalled it and pointed the default boot to Ubuntu. After that i edited grub to put a Vista option also. Also this script was run without the second hdd attached cause else i can not boot Ubuntu.

[darkod]

You should have left the other hdd connected too. That's why I said to boot with ubuntu cd, you should be able to boot the cd and the live desktop regardless of the bootloader mess on the hdds.
OK, so since it looks like you have / on /dev/sda9, /boot on /dev/sda10 and no bootloader on the sda MBR at all (it seems to be installed on /dev/sda10 instead), you could try this:

Connect the other hdd or not, your choice. Boot with the ubuntu cd, Try Ubuntu option, and in terminal execute:

sudo mount /dev/sda9 /mnt
sudo mount /dev/sda10 /mnt/boot
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda

That will put grub2 on the MBR of /dev/sda, where you want it. There was no need to force grub2 to get installed on /dev/sda10, the boot partition.
If you reboot without the cd that should enable you to boot ubuntu. Even when you connect the other hdd it should still allow you to boot ubuntu as long as sda is the first hdd in boot order in BIOS.

PS. Why all these FAT32 partitions? Ubuntu can read/write NTFS just fine, and also windows can access them. Any shared partitions are better to be NTFS.

[laur3ooo]

Yes i realize now i was better off installing grub to /sda rather than /sda10 but i wanted to install it there so as to do as little modifications as possible to any boot record of either OS by using an external Bootloader like Acronis OSS or GAG. I have since given up on that prospect and think that modifing GRUB config files to my liking would be an easier alternative.

Those FAT32 partiutions are old partitions, older than most of the others if you look at the extended partition number assigned to them. I dreaded to convert them before i installed Ubuntu because of time restraints and dread to convert them now because i'm too lazy to research how to modifiy the fstab file corectly after i convert. :)