Grub messed up on dual boot machine - can't boot live usb

Posted by Sam on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by Sam
Published on 2012-09-20T01:23:31Z Indexed on 2012/09/20 3:51 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 280

Filed under:

grub2

I have a laptop on which I had Win 7 and Ubuntu 12.04 installed. The hdd has two partitions (one primary and one extended). Grub wasn't loaing initially so I ran the boot disk repair tool which seemed to sort it out. However, I mistakenly removed python (long story) from the Ubuntu OS and this obviously messed up Ubuntu a lot. So I decided to reintsall both Win7 and Ubuntu 12.04 in an attempt to get things back fresh. Win 7 went fine, but now when I try and use the Live USB to install Ubuntu I get:

error: no such device: grub rescue >

I guess grub is still there despite the Win 7 reinstall and it can't find the partition for Ubuntu (which I deleted prior to the fresh install).

I have tried fixmbr in windows console and the boot-repair-disk utility, but no joy. I cannot boot the live usb so no access to linux.

A real mess.

Any suggestions from the community?

Related posts about grub2

How to enable boot timeout in Grub2?

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm am trying to enable the boot timeout selection in grub2 on Ubuntu 9.10. I modified /etc/default/grub: GRUB_DEFAULT=0 #GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=false GRUB_TIMEOUT=2 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian` GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash quiet" GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" and… >>> More
Windows 8 changes GRUB2 in every boot!

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I've installed Win8 and Ubuntu 12.10 both UEFI style (win8 first then ubuntu). GRUB2 shows me Both Ubuntu and Win8 entries. If I boot into Ubuntu is fine. I could reboot anytime I will see GRUB2 unchanged. The story changes when I Boot into Win8. When I boot to Win8 using GRUB2 it takes me to the… >>> More
How to install Grub2 under several common scenarios

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I feel the community has long needed a clean guide on how to install Grub2 under a a few extremely common scenarios. I will accept answer as solved when it has one section per scenario and assumes nothing other than what is specified. Please add to the existing answer, wiki style, keeping to the original… >>> More
Make bootable iso with grub chainloading

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
My parents' pc has windows 7's boot manager installed at MBR and grub2 is installed on /dev/sda2 (booting linux on /dev/sda2). I want to make a bootable cd so that when booted from it just chainloads into the boot manager on the second partition. I assume using grub rather than grub2 for this will… >>> More
So HERE'S how you get into grub2 if there's no boot menu in Ubuntu Lucid 10.04

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
<b>Click:</b> "I installed Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid from a daily build yet couldn't boot into my fresh new desktop because I needed to add nomodeset to the grub2 boot line and didn't know how to do that because there was no boot screen visible." >>> More

Developer IT