Grub won't start unless usb stick mounted from boot

[tictacman]

Hello,

Here's my situation.

Before: I had 2 os's ubuntu and windows installed on my system. Recently, I decided to install ubuntu to a flash drive. All went well except grub was not installed to the flash drive, but appended the existing grub setup on my hard drive.

Now: Even if I set the default system in grub as windows, or the original ubuntu install, my system will not boot unless the usb stick is plugged in. I get message. Error: grub rescue:

My ideal solution: To stop grub searching for my flashdrive before loading the boot menu, and if possible to write grub to the flash stick.

[dino99]

open /etc/fstab and look if you have an usb entry there, might need to remove or comment that entry, then update-grub again ( without the stick )

[C.S.Cameron]

Same situation:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1664438

[tictacman]

I couldn't find a usb entry in fstab. I tried installing legacy grub and then running grub-update but that didn't work. Then I scrounged around on the web for solutions. One post suggested installing lilo. I tried a command: lilo -m /dev/*** and now I don't have a bootloader at all. It just automatically boots into windows.

sorry, the link you mentioned is not the post I saw. I will try it