fixing grub - windows and ubuntu dual boot

[bobTurner]

Hi,
Have a little issue with getting ubuntu and windows 7 working.
This is what has happened.
I had a 320GB harddrive which has my windows on and a 500GB harddrive with just data on. I shrunk the 500GB to allow for a 30GB partition for ubuntu,
I then installed ubuntu by selecting install alongside windows option from the live cd.
It installed successfully, restarted then went into the OS selection screen where I selected Windows. Windows loaded fine and then I restarted. On restarting no OS selection screen appeared, instead it was just a flashing line. I followed some tutorials where they suggest pressing left shift but this just showed GRUB loading...

I have obtained these details from the live cd which I believe should be useful:



Boot Info Script 0.60 from 17 May 2011


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

=> Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of
the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
in partition 5 for .
=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.
=> Syslinux MBR (4.04 and higher) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc.

sda1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda1 starts
at sector 2048. But according to the info from fdisk,
sda1 starts at sector 63. The info in boot sector on
the starting sector of the MFT is wrong. According to
the info in the boot sector, sda1 has 625137663
sectors, but according to the info from fdisk, it has
1984 sectors.
Operating System: Windows 7
Boot files: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system:
Boot sector type: Unknown
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed: mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sda3: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system:
Boot sector type: Unknown
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed: mount: unknown filesystem type ''
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sdb1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

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

sdb2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

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

sdb5: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 11.10
Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sdb6: __________________________________________________ ________________________

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

sdc1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: SYSLINUX 4.05 2011-12-09
Boot sector info: Syslinux looks at sector 32776 of /dev/sdc1 for its
second stage. SYSLINUX is installed in the directory.
The integrity check of the ADV area failed. No errors
found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /syslinux/syslinux.cfg /ldlinux.sys

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

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 63 2,047 1,985 42 SFS
/dev/sda2 * 2,048 625,139,711 625,137,664 42 SFS
/dev/sda3 625,139,712 625,140,399 688 42 SFS


Drive: sdb __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sdb1 63 913,853,504 913,853,442 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sdb2 913,854,462 976,771,071 62,916,610 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 913,854,464 968,384,511 54,530,048 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6 968,386,560 976,771,071 8,384,512 82 Linux swap / Solaris


Drive: sdc __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sdc: 8015 MB, 8015314944 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 974 cylinders, total 15654912 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sdc1 * 63 15,654,911 15,654,849 b W95 FAT32


"blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 6010A7DE10A7BA04 ntfs
/dev/sdb1 AA3AE3803AE34841 ntfs Games
/dev/sdb5 b43e4505-ba6e-4f45-9797-c592c4c3171e ext4
/dev/sdb6 84ede393-8fe6-449d-9c4a-f408b95fc05e swap
/dev/sdc1 72A9-9B32 vfat PENDRIVE

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
/dev/sdb5 /mnt ext4 (rw)
/dev/sdc1 /cdrom vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437, iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)


=========================== sdb5/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================



Thanks for any help :)

[bobTurner]

Forgot to mention I have tried using boot-repair and it is just stuck scanning my system.

[oldfred]

Script is showing SFS partitions which is Windows dynamic partitioning and Linux systems do not work with dynamic partitions. Some have reported that some Windows tools do not work with the dynamic partitions, so unless you really want them it may be better to convert back to basic. Windows converts to dynamic if you try to create more than the 4 primary partitions and per Microsoft it is a one way conversion. But third party tools may convert back, but have good backups it you want to do it. Previous posters have reported success with Mini-Tool and EASEUS, links below.

You have grub2's boot loader in sda1. As part of Windows repairs I would reinstall the Windows boot loader to sda and leave grub only on sdb. You can set BIOS to boot sdb and grub will let you boot Ubuntu or Windows (unless still dynamic).

Dynamic volume is a Microsoft proprietary format developed together with Veritas (now acquired by Symantec) for logical volumes.
You can use a third-party tool, such as Partition Wizard MiniTool to convert a convert a dynamic disk to a basic disk without having to delete or format them.
The Partition Wizard software for Windows is supposed to be able to convert dynamic disks to regular partitions without data loss, so it may be what you need to get around this problem; however, I've never used it and so I can't be sure it will work.

Several users have used this, it has a liveCD download to use:
MiniTool Partition Wizard Professional Edition 5.2 to convert without loss of data the disk from dynamic disk to a basic disk.
also used Partition Wizard to set an existing partition logical instead of primary

Converted from dynamic with MiniTool, & repaired windows
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1779529
http://www.partitionwizard.com/convertpartition/convert-to-basic-disk.html
Converted with EASEUS Partition Master
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1692248
http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

[YannBuntu]

Hello


I have tried using boot-repair and it is just stuck scanning my system.

Please could you update Boot-Repair (version 3.16-0ppa10, will be available in ~2hours), then type "sudo boot-repair -d" in a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T), and copy/paste here the output ? (this will show debugging information)