Hi,
I have first installed windows7 ultimate and later UBUNTU 12.10. Later I have upgraded my win-7 with windows 8 pro.
Now my problem is I am unable to access UBUNTU as my boot loader is missing. Kindly help me to recover the boot loader.
Help is appreciated.
Thank you in adavance
Assuming you were using GRUB 2 as bootloader:
1. Boot to the LiveCD Desktop (Ubuntu 9.10 or later).
2. Open a terminal.
Determine the partition with the Ubuntu installation. The fdisk option "-l" is a lowercase "L".
sudo fdisk -l
If the user isn't sure of the partition, look for one of the appropriate size or formatting.
Running sudo blkid may provide more information to help locate the proper partition, especially if the partitions are labeled. The device/drive is designated by sdX, with X being the device designation. sda is the first device, sdb is the second, etc. For most users the MBR will be installed to sda, the first drive on their system. The partition is designated by the Y. The first partition is 1, the second is 2. Note the devices and partitions are counted differently.
4. Mount the partition containing the Ubuntu installation.
sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt
Example: sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
Note: If the user has a separate /boot partition, this must be mounted to /mnt/boot
5. Run the grub-install command as described below. This will reinstall the GRUB 2 files on the mounted partition to the proper location and to the MBR of the designated device.
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sdX
Example: sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda
If you installed via wubi and you did a clean install of windows 8 you will have to reinstall via wubi. Personally I don't recommend wubi because it is not meant to be used as a permanent installation, but rather as a temporary test drive. Unfortunately most users I have encountered that use wubi totally ignore this fact and as wubi almost invariably does, it gets messed up - then they want miracles performed to fix their wubi installation. If you like ubuntu do an installation to a partition.
@visitnag
Do the same thing as Presence, but instead of manually installing GRUB and accidentally messing up your system even more, install boot-repair and use that to fix the bootloader.
Type in the terminal...
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install boot-repair
Then, after the program is loaded, hit Recommended Repair. The advanced options area is only if you know what you're doing. I messed up a Vista install this way, so don't mess around in there!
Here's the link in case you need more information:
Hope I helped and hope you get your Ubuntu install back. :-)
@thesilentman: I know a lot of people use boot-repair. I prefer to have complete control of my system by executing terminal commands, however what ever will get the job done is OK with me. In linux today the trend seems to be more emphasis on GUI applications and troubleshooting. One of the wise computer people who helped teach me a lot always reminded me of this: If you can learn terminal/command prompt you can get almost any machine to run or make repairs on them.
BTW I belong to Ubuntu forums, use the same screen name there. With computers there usually is more than one way to skin a cat.
@thesilentman: the terminal commands you posted are those that have to be run from within Ubuntu. The OP can't boot Ubuntu presently because windows has placed it's bootloader on MBR. The OP must boot from Ubuntu Live CD/USB and do the following:
2nd option : install Boot-Repair in Ubuntu
- boot your computer on a Ubuntu live-CD or live-USB.
- choose "Try Ubuntu"
- connect internet
- open a new Terminal, then type:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update
- Press Enter.
- Then type:
sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair
My personal opinion seems like a lot of work just to get a GUI solution. Probably easier and definitely faster to just issue a few terminal commands IMHO. But like with ice cream-that is why there are a variety of flavors. I just downloaded it and tried it on my daughters computer since she has a single hard disk. I booted to Ubuntu and installed a generic windows bootloader to MBR with lilo. Rebooted and it booted straight to windows. I then booted off the Ubuntu Live USB and put GRUB back on MBR with boot-repair. It works, but leaves the operator in the dark about what was done. If one wants to learn using the terminal is the way to go. If one just wants to push the power button and surf the net than boot-repair is the way to go. Either will do the job as effectively as the other as far as I can see.
