GNU GRand Unified Bootloader (aka GRUB)
GRUB is installed by default when you install various Linux Distributions alongside Windows. Ubuntu is among these distributions. I have been using the GRUB Bootloader on my Tablet since I got it – Ubuntu was one of the first pieces of software that I installed. I’ve had some bumps with it here and there, but nothing too bad that it couldn’t be recovered from. The other day, I did a clean install of Windows 7 on my Tablet, deleting Windows Vista for ever. In doing so, I knew that my Master Boot Record (MBR) would be overwritten by Windows, deleting GRUB in the process. I figured it wouldnt take more than a few terminal commands to restore GRUB, and all would be well again. Not quite….
It took my several hours to restore my GRUB settings. I started with two tutorials side by side at first – tutorial 1 and tutorial 2. I tried using the first tutorial, but kept receiving an error when using the find /boot/grub/stage1 command (scroll down into the comments for it). I tried bypassing that command, and still no luck. I then moved onto the end of the second tutorial, first post where you manually mount the partition containing the GRUB files. Everything was working fine until trying to run the chroot command – this resulted in an error from Terminal. After a few more tries, I went back to Google to find yet another tutorial. This time I was brought to the Ubuntu help site where I was once again looking at the same commands used in tutorial 1 above. After reading through some of the other options, I decided to give Super Grub Disk a try. From the Ubuntu Help Site:
- Download Super Grub Disk
- Burn into a cdrom (better) or a floppy
- Boot from it
- Select: GRUB => MBR & !LINUX! (>2) MANUAL |8-)
- Select the Linux or Grub installation you want to restore.
- You see the message: SGD has done it!
- Reboot
- You're done.
I was able to follow these steps up until the “Select the Linux or Grub installation you want to restore”. I kept clicking the partition that housed my Ubuntu installation, and was finally brought to my desktop. Rather than try to go back to the Super Grub Disk Live CD, I went back to the original tutorials and followed those commands. This time they worked, and I was able to reboot with no Live CD present, and was greeted by my GRUB Menu once again. To save you from having to open the other tutorials, the commands that need to be entered are:
sudo grub
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
grub> root (hd0,1)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit