Comments on: How to restore Grub boot loader after installing Windows

By: Meow

Meow — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:39:37 +0000

Using “dd” to back up your hard drive’s bootloader seems to be a simplest way to fix your grub menu after a new installation for windows. while installing windows is done, boot your pc with a linux live usb key, then use “dd” to restore the file aka the bootloader you backed up previously in terminal, after reboot your pc the menu will show up again.

By: dave

dave — Mon, 03 May 2010 05:03:36 +0000

alright so i burned a cd of 10.04 trying to do all these things, but when i run the cd, i choose “try for free without installing” or whatever it says. because if i do not, i would have to copy over the ubuntu that is already there right? so i am on the right place yea? cause nothing is working for me.. i get this..

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 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: 0xaed0254e

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1306 10485760 27 Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 1306 10380 72885248 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 10380 10771 3145796 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 10772 19457 69770295 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 19098 19457 2891668+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 8210 MB, 8210350080 bytes
74 heads, 10 sectors/track, 21670 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 740 * 512 = 378880 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0×04030201

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 8 21671 8015136 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

please tell me wtf im sposed to do

By: Bart

Bart — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:51:33 +0000

@crash

/dev/sda -- dude, you missing a partition number!

By: crash

crash — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:37:19 +0000

Thanks for these instructions, but they aren’t working for me. When I enter

grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda

It tells me:

mkdir: cannot create directory ‘mnt//boot’: No such file or directory

If I try the directions listed right underneath, when I type

choot /mnt update-grub

I get:

No GRUB directory (and some other stuff about creating a template…)

Any ideas?

(I also tried the instructions for installing grub in Windows, but I don’t know how to create a boot.ini file.

By: Red R

Red R — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:23:13 +0000

Hi, My Distro is Fedora 11 dual with Windows XP but I’m sure Ubuntu Grub is just the same. I could be mistaken but it seems to me you are all really going about this the hard way; me I’m just lazy, go here: http://www.supergrubdisk.org/ download the Supergrub boot disk of your choice (CD,USB Flash or Floppy) boot your system with it read what it says and press number 1 (usually) on the menu and that should fire up your usual session and when you close down and restart the Grub boot menu should be back to where it was before Windows trashed it )

By: Ole

Ole — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:25:06 +0000

@Fikret:
Ha ha. Your way is for grub1. This for grub2.

By: Christian

Christian — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:24:13 +0000

Ehm, sorry. Too early with a coffee mug in my hands. Been reading in English and writing in German

Grab the translation here: http://bit.ly/30cNwi

By: Christian

Christian — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:21:01 +0000

@Fikret:

Ääääääh, ja. Ich mag zwar n Berlin-Kreuzberg wohnen, aber ganz so einsichtlich war das für mich nicht.

Wird aber schon stimmen. Danke

By: Fikret

Fikret — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:47:08 +0000

Here is a simple way

http://linuxogrenmekistiyorum.com/2009/04/05/grubu-yeniden-kurmak/

Only five command

#
sudo grub
#
find /boot/grub/stage1
#
root (hd0,5)
#
setup (hd0)
#
quit

By: Christian

Christian — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:40:37 +0000

I think this should also work for migrating from LILO to Grub if you installed Ubuntu from the Alternate CD.

By: frank

frank — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:39:02 +0000

i found it easiest to first save the mbr to a file on a memory stick, and then recover it after booting from a live cd.
google “save restore mbr +dd” - the instructions by Randy Cooper worked just sterling for me.
just remember not to destroy your disk… =)