Online Update to 10.04: loss of Windows Boot

[MikeB007]

Machine: Win2000 Pro, AMD64 Athlon 2GHz, 2x80Gb HD, 2 GB RAM

Symptoms: Running 9.10 with dual boot no probs for ~ 1 year. Decided to upgrade online via synaptic to 10.04. Upgrade went well no warnings, etc. On reboot all OS options present in Grub BUT clicking on Win2000 causes the screen to blank temporarily and then return to the Grub menu ie. no functioning Win2000 boot option. Ubuntu 10.04 boot yields blank screen with flashing cursor, a sudden stream of IO error messages (can't capture it but the lines look identical) then screen flickers and I'm at the purple log in screen and everything proceeds perfectly from there.

Observations: For the first time on any of my ubuntu installs (i've been using since 8.04 always installing from CD though) grub installation asked where I wanted it. In fact, the screen shows all devices with check boxes wth which to make my choice. That is sdb, sdb1, sdb2, ... , sda, sda1, sda2, ...
There was a help message that says that if in doubt install on _all_. Being in doubt I checked all the boxes: sdb, sdb1, etc. I noted in the message streams that followed after i continued that some lines had "... this is BAD ..." but since it was all rolling along very quickly no idea exactly _what_ was bad.

Action: I am not a linux newb but I am a grub newb. I fished the forums and googled only to come completely confused about what the problem might be or what to do. Example: have i overwritten my win bootloader? is my mbr corrupted? if i remove grub what will happen? if i remove and reinstall grub will i get windows booting back? if i use my win2000 install CD will it overwrite my whole disk (as many warn) or can i just fix the mbr? if I do the latter what order do i ie use fix mbr then fix boot? The info i've come across so far either doesn't address what happened to me, deals with other OSs (XP, Vista), or is applied to earlier editions of grub/ubuntu.

Right now I have not found a clear step by step that addresses my circumstance. Would anyone be able to provide some guidance? I need the windows boot to run some software (Matlab) that btw will not work with XP/Vista (hence the reason i still have win2k).

[MikeB007]

Ran Boot Info Script. Results attached.

[MikeB007]

fdisk output is:

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0043356d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 5503 44202816 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 5504 9728 33937312+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 8454 9728 10241406 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdb6 5504 8325 22667652 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 8326 8453 1028128+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8cbe9d86

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 9729 78148161 7 HPFS/NTFS

[vinod_home]

I see a few people having the same issue. Dont know where the problem is, but I am guessing its got to do with grub2. Hope someone gives a procedure to fix this soon.

Did you install grub on that sdb1 partition?

[oldfred]

You installed grub to the windows partition overwriting the windows boot loader.

Boot sector info: Grub 2 is installed in the boot sector of sdb1 and
looks at sector 88749501 of the same hard drive for
core.img, but core.img can not be found at this
location. No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawik...ms:Boot_Sector

Where in the update instructions does it say to install grub everywhere? Several have commented that is the case and I think we need to post that as a bug even though it is an error in instructions and not a software bug.

[MikeB007]

As I recall, at one point you are asked where you want to install grub. As mentioned, all partitions are shown. Where the direction is I don't recall but it is affiliated with that page so maybe a drop down help or something written in the guidance as to what to do on that page. But I can assure you it _is_ written there. As I said, I don't recall ever being asked where I wanted grub installed so I read whatever guidance was provided and adhered to it.