if it helps thats slightly in the wrong order.
windows and ubuntu side by side were fine.
Bodged an ubuntu studio installation over old ubuntu by wiping the partition.
got the same grub error.
So reinstalled old ubuntu 9.10 from disk and updated it to ubuntu studio thinking it may resolve it, it worked at first though not for long and back to square 2
here are the results from running bootinfoscript as recommended to someone here with a similar problem
Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010
============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================
=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in
partition #6 for /boot/grub.
sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files/dirs: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM
sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: ext3
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 9.10
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab
sda6: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed:
mount: unknown filesystem type ''
sda7: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================
Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xffbb6029
Partition Boot Start End Size Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 421,963,289 421,963,227 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 421,963,290 976,768,064 554,804,775 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 * 421,963,353 958,646,744 536,683,392 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 * 958,646,808 975,900,554 17,253,747 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 975,900,618 976,768,064 867,447 82 Linux swap / Solaris
blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________
Device UUID TYPE LABEL
/dev/mapper/cryptswap1 e1a63b1a-5290-462c-b3f1-e3b9185e4181 swap
/dev/sda1 EE1C5FAB1C5F6D99 ntfs
/dev/sda5 67ed7d38-ffa5-4016-aa78-9a5d237fe74b ext3 fire
/dev/sda7 d6a29f80-f82f-4ac1-b955-edb9e86b8041 swap
=============================== "ls -R /dev/mapper/" output: ===============================
/dev/mapper:
control
cryptswap1
cryptswap1_unformatted
============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================
Device Mount_Point Type Options
/dev/sda5 / ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sr0 /media/cdrom0 iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,utf8,user=matt)
/dev/sr1 /media/O2 USB Modem iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=devkit,uid=1000,gid=1000, iocharset=utf8,mode=0400,dmode=0500)
================================ sda1/boot.ini: ================================
[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
=========================== sda5/boot/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
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 2.6.31-9-rt" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,5)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 67ed7d38-ffa5-4016-aa78-9a5d237fe74b
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-9-rt root=UUID=67ed7d38-ffa5-4016-aa78-9a5d237fe74b ro quiet quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-9-rt
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-9-rt (recovery mode)" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,5)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 67ed7d38-ffa5-4016-aa78-9a5d237fe74b
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-9-rt root=UUID=67ed7d38-ffa5-4016-aa78-9a5d237fe74b ro single quiet
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-9-rt
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
if [ ${timeout} != -1 ]; then
if keystatus; then
if keystatus --shift; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=0
fi
else
if sleep --interruptible 3 ; then
set timeout=0
fi
fi
fi
### 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 ###
=============================== sda5/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/sda5 during installation
UUID=67ed7d38-ffa5-4016-aa78-9a5d237fe74b / ext3 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda6 during installation
#UUID=5138b227-b215-4d55-92a1-bace4a64af55 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/mapper/cryptswap1 none swap sw 0 0
=================== sda5: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================
307.5GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
307.5GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-9-rt
307.4GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-9-rt
307.5GB: initrd.img
307.4GB: vmlinuz
=======Devices which don't seem to have a corresponding hard drive==============
sdb
arrgggh !!!