Fresh Ubuntu Install - Grub not loading

Posted by Ryan Sharp on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by Ryan Sharp
Published on 2012-08-27T21:46:17Z Indexed on 2012/08/27 21:56 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 299

Filed under:
|

System

Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit

Windows 7 SP1

Samsung 64GB SSD - OS'

Samsung 1TB HDD - Games, /Home, Swap

WD 300'ishGB HDD - Backup

Okay, so I'm very frustrated, so please excuse me if I miss anything out as my head is clouded by anger and impatience, etc. I'll try me best, though. First of all, I'll explain how I got to my predicament.

I finally got my new SSD. I firstly installed Windows, which completed without a hitch. Afterwards, I tried to install Ubuntu, which failed several times due to problems irrelevant to this question, but I mention this to explain my frustrations, sorry.

Anyway, I finally installed Ubuntu. However, I chose the 'bootloader' to be installed on the same partition as where I was installing the Ubuntu Root partition, as that was what I believed to be the best choice. It was of my thinking that it was supposed to go on the same partition and on the SSD, which is my OS drive, though with my problem, it apparently was wrong.

So I tried to fix it by checking guides and following their directions, but seemed to have messed it up even more.

Here is what I receive after I use the fdisk -l command: (I also added explanations for which I used each partition for)

Disk /dev/sda: 64.0 GB, 64023257088 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7783 cylinders, total 125045424 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x324971d1

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          208896    48957439    24374272    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3        48959486   125044735    38042625    5  Extended
/dev/sda5        48959488   125044735    38042624   83  Linux

sda1 --/> Windows Recovery

sda2 --/> Windows 7

sda3/5 --/> Ubuntu root [ / ]

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc0ee6a69

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1      1024208894  1953523711   464657409    5  Extended
/dev/sdb3   *        2048  1024206847   512102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb5      1024208896  1939851263   457821184   83  Linux
/dev/sdb6      1939853312  1953523711     6835200   82  Linux swap / Solaris

sdb3 --/> Partition for Steam games, etc.

sdb5 --/> Ubuntu Home [ /home ]

sdb6 --/> Ubuntu Swap

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdc: 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
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x292eee23

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1            2048   625141759   312569856    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

sdc1 --/> Generic backup

I also used a Boot Script that other users suggested, so that I can give more details on my partitions and also where Grub is located...

============================= 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 
    for (,msdos5)/boot/grub on this drive.
 => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb and looks at sector 1 of 
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks 
    for (,msdos5)/boot/grub on this drive.
 => Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc.

Now that is weird... Why would Grub2 be installed on both my SSD and HDD? Even weirder is why is Windows on the MBR of my backup hard drive? Nothing I did should have done that...

Anyway, here is the entire Output from that script... PASTEBIN

So, to summarize what I need:

  1. How can I fix my setup so grub loads on startup?
  2. How can I clean my partitions to remove unnecessary grubs?
  3. What did I do wrong so that I don't do something so daft again?

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you can help me. I've been trying to have a successful setup since Friday, and I'm almost at the point that I'm really tempted to throw my computer out the window due to my frustration.

© Ask Ubuntu or respective owner

Related posts about 12.04

Related posts about grub2