only grub rescue prompt is coming

[Praveen30]

hello,

my friend has installed ubuntu 10.04 inside windows.he worked on ubuntu for 2-3 days and then he updated his system.after updation when he restarted the system only this is coming-

error:
no such device:(some numbers here..)
grub rescue>

please help..i do not want him to lose faith on linux....

[Rubi1200]

Hi Praveen30,
if you mean a Wubi install, we need a bit more information, but don't worry there is a solution :)

Can your friend boot into Windows at all?

Does he remember if it was an update for Wubi or just normal updates?

Does he have a Windows installation/recovery CD and/or an Ubuntu CD?

[Praveen30]

Hi Praveen30,
if you mean a Wubi install, we need a bit more information, but don't worry there is a solution :)

Can your friend boot into Windows at all?

Does he remember if it was an update for Wubi or just normal updates?

Does he have a Windows installation/recovery CD and/or an Ubuntu CD?

no, he is not able to boot into windows at all.

i have a cd and his laptop is with me so i can do whatever you will say...

actually he had updated first time his ubuntu after installation..

i have just inserted the live cd....so what next???

[Rubi1200]

Hi,
if you have the Windows CD, then follow these instructions to restore the Windows bootloader:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1014708

Scroll down to the relevant section.

If you have an Ubuntu CD:

Restore basic windows boot loader - universe enabled
Code:

sudo apt-get install lilo
Code:

sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr
May show error messages about the rest of lilo missing, ignore, we just want MBR.

courtesy of forum member oldfred.

This will install a basic Windows bootloader and allow you to get back into Windows.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[Roreek]

Rubi1200 (& oldfred),

thank you.

I had the same problem as Praveen30 after updating my Wubi install from Lucid to Maverick.

As my netbook doesn't have an optical drive, I booted from USB stick, (created with unetbootin (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/)) then followed the instructions for lilo.

And it worked - back to normal in minutes.