Grub recovery

[Andrew_Morey]

I have recently partitioned my laptop. I put Ubuntu Netbook remix v.9.10 on a flash drive. I booted from the flash drive and went through the whole installation process. I selected "Install side by side and choose during start-up" It on next start-up, Grub showed up and I selected ubuntu. (Not safe mode) It worked just fine. When I tried to boot Windows, I selected "windows 7 loader" I got the little loading bar when windows first starts up, then I got sent back to grub... So I selected "windows Vista loader" (This option was weird, seeing as how my computer has never had vista before) I got the eRecovery manager and my only two options were restore C:/ drive and lose all user data, or exit. The option to retain all user data was there, but it was "grayed out." so I selected exit. when I loaded grub again, it said
no such partition
grub recovery>I have typed things like 'help' 'C:/recovery' 'y' 'exit', but to no avail. Now all I can do is boot from my flash drive.

P.S. I have/had Windows 7 Starter, if that helps.

PLEASE HELP! I don't want to lose all my data!
P.S.S I don't have a recovery disc for Windows.

[kansasnoob]

Please post the output of the Boot Info Script as described here:

http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/

I at least hope you have a way to boot either a Live CD or a Live USB :p

If not we're in trouble.

Edit: I see you can boot the flash drive so hopefully we'll be OK, I am curious though, do you have a CDROM?

[Andrew_Morey]

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 Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /BOOTMGR /BOOT/BCD

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD

sda3: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows 7
Boot files/dirs: /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda4: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda5 starts
at sector 63.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sdb: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Fat32
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /boot/grub/core.img

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

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1aa056ab

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 63 25,173,854 25,173,792 27 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 25,173,855 25,382,699 208,845 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 25,382,700 150,946,739 125,564,040 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 150,946,740 312,576,704 161,629,965 f W95 Ext d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 206,660,223 312,576,704 105,916,482 7 HPFS/NTFS


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 F8C4207AC4203D6E ntfs PQSERVICE
/dev/sda2 14E020A0E02089D6 ntfs SYSTEM RESERVED
/dev/sda3 8EE421C6E421B17F ntfs Acer
/dev/sda5 01CAEE67B9385780 ntfs
/dev/sdb 1941-3E5A vfat MINI USB

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

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw)
/dev/sdb /cdrom vfat (rw)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (rw)


=========================== sdb/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

insmod biosdisk
insmod part_acorn
insmod part_amiga
insmod part_apple
insmod part_gpt
insmod part_msdos
insmod part_sun
export prefix
export root
configfile $prefix/lang.cfg

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


??GB: boot/grub/core.img
??GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
??GB: boot/initrd.gz
??GB: boot/vmlinuz

EDIT: No, I do not have a CD due to the fact my netbook does not have a CD drive and the USB one I have is read only.

[kansasnoob]

Read this all before proceeding!

You didn't say if you have a CDROM or a lIve USB!

The oddest thing is that sdb is NOT fully recognized:


sdb: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Fat32
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /boot/grub/core.img


Notice the "operating system" part is blank? Yet that and this:


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


??GB: boot/grub/core.img
??GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
??GB: boot/initrd.gz
??GB: boot/vmlinuz

Both show grub2 on sdb, which must be your flash drive. Notice the "??" though? It can't even read the drive size.

Of course this:


Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in
partition #6 for /boot/grub.

Tells me that you installed the grub2 bootloader to the internal drive. That's easy to fix but I'd first like to know:

1) How are you running Ubuntu now?

2) Do you have a CDROM and a Live CD to run?

3) Is the install on sdb (the flash drive) a true install or a Live image?

Anyway you can restore a Windows readable mbr to sda by running the following commands from Ubuntu:


sudo apt-get install lilo


sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr

But, and this is shot in the dark, before you reboot I'd like to see the output of:


sudo parted /dev/sdb print

I'm honestly thinking that it couldn't hurt to also run the following before you reboot:


grub-install /dev/sdb

And if that produces any errors also:


grub-install --recheck /dev/sdb

Then hopefully you'll be able to boot Windows if the flash drive is not plugged in, and still be able to boot the flash drive if the BIOS is set to boot USB before the hard drive.

I usually keep my BIOS set to boot CD first, USB second, and hard drive third.

There is some guess work involved here!

[Andrew_Morey]

Model: Ut165 USB2FlashStorage (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 4041MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop

Number Start End Size File system Flags
1 0.00B 4041MB 4041MB fat32


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1)I am running it from a USB
2)No
3)I am not sure. I used unetbootin to install the ubuntu iso on my flash drive.

And my boot order is USB Hard Drive.

[kansasnoob]

Model: Ut165 USB2FlashStorage (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 4041MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop

Number Start End Size File system Flags
1 0.00B 4041MB 4041MB fat32


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1)I am running it from a USB
2)No
3)I am not sure. I used unetbootin to install the ubuntu iso on my flash drive.

And my boot order is USB Hard Drive.

Sorry to just disappear, I was getting so tired nothing made sense to me. I notice I even left sudo off a couple of my commands :)

It's great that parted recognized that flash drive, I don't know why the Info Script didn't, but regardless that certainly looks like a Live USB because of the "Partition Table: loop" and the fact that it's formatted fat32.

The question remains about whether or not to install grub to the mbr of the flash drive (sdb)? I would think since Unetbootin installed grub2 to the mbr of sda the answer would be yes, but I've never used Unetbootin :(

Anyway you absolutely need to restore a Windows mbr to sda as I previously said:


sudo apt-get install lilo


sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr

Then give the flash drive a grub2 mbr:


sudo grub-install /dev/sdb

And if that returns any errors:


sudo grub-install --recheck /dev/sdb

I think that should do it.

[Andrew_Morey]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! You really saved my neck! I love you! (not in a gay way though) Do you have any tips on how to dual-boot without this problem in the future?