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RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows
RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows
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This page documents how to restore or Indice

recover the boot-loader after installing
Windows. Ubuntu uses the Grub boot- 1. Recovery Using the Ubuntu
loader; refer to the GrubHowto or Grub2 for Desktop/Live CD (RECOMMENDED)
1. Introduction
more information on Grub. Some reasons to
2. Create and boot from a Live CD
repair your boot-loader might include 3. Are you using Grub or Grub 2?
installing Microsoft Windows after you have 4. Overwriting the Master Boot
installed Ubuntu, adding or removing a hard Record
drive, or changing hard drive settings. 1. For Grub Legacy
5. Troubleshooting
Note: These instructions provide multiple 1. I don't see a Grub menu
2. Grub comes up in shell
options. Pick the option which works best for
mode with no boot menu
you; otherwise, choose recommended option. 3. What if Grub 2 does not
list Windows
Recovery Using the 4. Grub 2 gives "error: no
such device:
Ubuntu Desktop/Live CD xxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxx.xxxx"
5. What if Grub Legacy
(RECOMMENDED) misses Windows
2. Recovery using Microsoft Windows and
Its Bootloader
Introduction 1. Restoring GRUB
2. Making Windows Load GRUB
This method will install Grub boot-loader (and then Linux)
into the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the 3. Recovery Using the Unofficial Rescatux
main computer hard drive. 4. Recovery Using the Unofficial "Super
Grub Disk"
The slight complexity of this method consists 1. From within Windows
2. As a standalone cd/floppy/usb
of determining whether Ubuntu Operating 3. Preserving Windows Bootloader
System installed on your computer was 5. Recovery Using the Ubuntu
configured for Grub or Grub 2. Alternate/Install CD
1. The GUI Way: Using the
If you fresh-installed Ubuntu Karmic Alternate/Install CD and
9.10 or newer, you are running Overwriting the Windows
bootloader
Grub2.
6. Recovery Using Third-Party Proprietary
If you ran previous version of Ubuntu Software
and upgraded to Ubuntu Karmic 9.10, 7. Troubleshooting
you are running Grub Legacy by 1. Preparing Your Working
Environment
default; unless you have executed 1. Recovering GRUB
upgrade-from-grub-legacy, then you Automatically
are running Grub2. 2. Recovering GRUB
Manually
If you are running Ubuntu Jaunty or
3. Configuring the GRUB
Intrepid, you are running Grub Menu
Legacy. 8. GRUB Resources
If you are not sure, follow the guide
assuming you are running Grub2 --
there will be a point to make a correction.

You can check the current version installed on your system via Synaptic or from the
command line. Open a Terminal and enter the following:

grub-install -v
GRUB 2 should display a version number of 1.96 or later. Legacy GRUB is version 0.97.

Create and boot from a Live CD

Grub2: Download the latest version of Ubuntu Desktop edition from

http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download and burn your Ubuntu CD.
Grub Legacy: See the dual-boot guide about recovering grub

Reboot your computer and boot into a live session.

Mount your Ubuntu partition from Places menu.

Are you using Grub or Grub 2?

Skip this section if you are sure about your version of Grub

Go into boot/grub directory and check for the existence of the files menu.lst and grub.cfg.
 Grub Legacy uses boot/grub/menu.lst.
Grub 2 uses uses boot/grub/grub.cfg.

If you are still not sure, view the file and check whether syntax follows Grub2 conventions.

If you downloaded Ubuntu Karmic 9.10 Live CD, but your installed version of Ubuntu uses
Grub Legacy, please use this guide

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DualBoot/Grub#Ubuntu%209.10%20&%20earlier

Overwriting the Master Boot Record

Existing MBR will be lost. In order to dual-boot your computer, we will be
creating a new Master Boot Record to include all operating systems, including
Ubuntu Linux and Microsoft Windows. This is to be expected.

Your Ubuntu partition is now mounted. You will need to continue Using the Terminal.

Verify if your partition is correct.

mount | tail -1

You should see output similar to this:

/dev/sda2 on /media/0d104aff-ec8c-44c8-b811-92b993823444 type ext4

(rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=devkit)

Note the designation for the disk /dev/sda which you will be using later, and the
directory in /media.
 Use Tab Completion in Terminal to complete the path. Hitting the <TAB> key will
automatically finish file names, directory locations, and other long or hard to type file names.

To make sure this is indeed the Ubuntu boot partition, run ls /media/0d104aff-
ec8c-44c8-b811-92b993823444/boot, substituting 0d104aff-ec8c-
44c8-b811-92b993823444 with your volume's UUID from before, which should
output something like this:

config-2.6.18-3-686 initrd.img-2.6.18-3-686.bak System.map-2.6.18-

3-686
grub lost+found vmlinuz-2.6.18-3-
686
initrd.img-2.6.18-3-686 memtest86+.bin

If what you have is not similar, unmount it and try another partition.

Now that everything is mounted, we just need to reinstall GRUB by specifying the correct
directory and the correct drive name:

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/media/0d104aff-ec8c-44c8-b811-

92b993823444 /dev/sda

If you get BIOS warnings try:

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/media/0d104aff-ec8c-44c8-b811-

92b993823444 /dev/sda --recheck

Replace /dev/sda with the location you want to install GRUB on.

If all went well, you should see something like this:

Installation finished. No error reported.

This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map.
Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.

(hd0) /dev/sda

Reboot, making sure to boot to your hard drive and not to the live CD. Grub should be
installed and both Ubuntu and Windows should have been automatically detected and listed
in the menu.

The Master Boot Record will execute Grub as the initial bootloader. The Windows
bootloader is contained within the Windows partition and will then be chainloaded by the
Grub bootloader.

For Grub Legacy

Please refer to the guide

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DualBoot/Grub#Ubuntu%209.10%20&%20earlier

Troubleshooting
I don't see a Grub menu

If the menu is not normally displayed during boot, hold down the SHIFT key as the
computer attempts to boot to display the GRUB 2 menu. For Grub Legacy, use ESC key to
display a menu.

Grub comes up in shell mode with no boot menu

You may have mixed up Grub Legacy and Grub 2. This symptom is most typical when you
assumed you have Grub 2, but your Ubuntu OS actually uses Grub Legacy. Follow these
instructions again using Ubuntu 9.04 Live CD.
If you are certain you have Grub 2 and it's still displaying shell mode by now, follow the
method using chroot listed here... http://www.ubuntu-inside.me/2009/06/howto-recover-
grub2-after-windows.html.

What if Grub 2 does not list Windows

If, after installing grub, Windows does not appear in the boot menu, boot into Ubuntu and
execute command

sudo update-grub2

Grub 2 gives "error: no such device: xxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxx.xxxx"

If at any time grub2 gives this error, boot up into Ubuntu (on hard disk if possible, otherwise
with Live CD), open a terminal and run command

sudo update-grub2

This should automatically detect the devices and configure grub appropriately.

What if Grub Legacy misses Windows

If, after installing grub, Windows does not appear in the boot menu, you will need to edit
/boot/grub/menu.lst (That is a lowercase "L" and not the number 1 in menu.lst)

Open a terminal and enter:

gksu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Or, in Kubuntu:

kdesu kate /boot/grub/menu.lst

Your Windows stanza should look something like this:

title Windows XP/Vista # Use any title you wish, it will appear in the
grub boot menu
rootnoverify (hd0,0) # This is the location of the windows partition
makeactive
chainloader +1

Note: Put your Windows stanza before or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST in the
menu.lst

Recovery using Microsoft Windows and Its Bootloader

If you have your Linux system in a second (or third...) hard disk this method will
not work. Please check Super Grub Disk's method that address this problem.

This method will also fail with Grub 2.

This method allows you to restore GRUB and keep the Windows bootloader as your primary
bootloader. Thanks to Ubuntu's support for NTFS writing this method is now quite simple.

The previous method puts GRUB back on the MBR (Master Boot Record) of the hard drive
instead of in the root partition. Should you not wish to do so, for instance if you use a third-
party boot manager like Boot Magic or System Commander, this next suggestion will be
helpful. Another reason to prefer this method is for when restoring the Grub menu after a re-
ghosting. In either case, use this alternative.

Restoring GRUB
1. Boot from a Live CD, like Ubuntu Desktop, or similar. It is recommended to use Ubuntu
9.04 or newer as this has NTFS write support.

2. Open a Terminal. Open a root terminal (For non-Ubuntu live CDs type su the terminal.
For Ubuntu based distros run sudo -i) Enter root passwords as necessary.

3. Type grub which makes a GRUB prompt appear.

4. Type find /boot/grub/stage1. You'll get a response like "(hd0)" or in my case

"(hd0,3)". Use the output from this command for the following commands.

Note:

You should have mounted the partition which has your Linux system before typing this
command. (e.g. In Knoppix Live CD partitions are shown on the desktop but they're not
mounted until you double-click on them or mount them manually)

5. Type root (hd0,3) note the space between root and (hd0,3).

6. Type setup (hd0,3) into the prompt. This is key. Other instructions say to use
"(hd0)", and that's fine if you want to write GRUB to the MBR. If you want to write it to
your Linux root partition, then you want the number after the comma, such as "(hd0,3)".

7. Type quit

8. At this stage you can either restart the system and install your own bootloader, or you can
continue and tell the Windows bootloader where to find GRUB which will handle booting
Linux.

Making Windows Load GRUB (and then Linux)

This is taken from Dual-Boot Linux and Windows 2000/Windows XP with GRUB
HOWTO which has been helping people dual boot since at least 2005.

1. In Linux open a command window.

2. Mount a drive which you can share with Windows. This could be a USB drive, a FAT32
partition on your hard drive, or if you are using a Linux distribution which supports NTFS
writing natively (Such as Ubuntu 8.04 or later) then you can mount the actual Windows C:\
drive itself! The advantage of writing to the Windows drive is that you are going to need to
put a file there eventually, so it saves time copying a file around. For example:

#mkdir /tmp/windows
#mount /dev/sda1 /tmp/windows

However, when writing directly to the C:\ drive you could also do some damage to the
system if you delete or move something. If you do pick the option to write directly, go in, put
the file where it belongs, and touch NOTHING else.

3. Now you are going to make a copy of your boot partition. Finding out what this is called is
not always completely reliable since the Linux naming conventions differ from the GRUB
naming conventions. Linux labels partitions as hd[Letter][Number] or sd[Letter][Number]
whereas GRUB always names them as hd[Number][Number]. If you installed GRUB on
(hd0,0), then the /boot partition will be on hda1 or sda1. (Since (hd1,0) == hdb1 or sdb1,
then by extension if you installed GRUB on (hd0,1) then the /boot partition will be on hda2
or sda2 and so on and so forth.) This narrows you down to two possibilities. If you now
paste ls /dev |grep hd it will let you know if you have that drive on your machine.
If nothing comes up which matches, then that means you must have an sd drive.

Note: The command df won't work as you are booted from a Live CD.

4. Having determined your boot partition run this command as root:

#dd if=/dev/sda2 of=/tmp/windows/linux.bin bs=512 count=1

Looking at this example /dev/sda2 is your boot partition and /tmp/windows/ is the
drive you want to copy the boot sector image to.

5. If you haven't created linux.bin in the Windows drive then you need to copy it there
now.

6. Next, reboot your computer and boot into Windows. Open c:\boot.ini in Notepad,
and add a new line at the bottom:

c:\linux.bin="Linux"

This file might be write protected. If that is so, you need to enable writing to the file. To do
so, right click, and from the context menu select Properties. Then uncheck the box that says
"File is read only". Make sure to put that checkmark back afterwards.

Next, make sure that at the top of the boot.ini file there is a timeout set, i.e
timeout=5 or some such number.

Do not edit this file from the Live CD, even if you have NTFS write support. Linux
and Windows represent line breaks in different ways, so even though you can edit the file, it
won't add a new line.

7. That's it, reboot and you will be given the option of booting into Linux, selecting that will
chainload GRUB and this will let you boot into your Linux distro.

Source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=121355&postcount=5

Recovery Using the Unofficial Rescatux

Note about grub2: Rescatux can be used to restore either Grub (Ubuntu 9.04 and
previous versions) or Grub2 (Ubuntu 9.10 and later versions)

Download Rescatux
Burn the Rescatux ISO in a cdrom
Make your PC boot from the cdrom
At Debian Live Boot screen just press ENTER
Select Restore grub / Fix Linux Boot option and click on OK button
Select the partition where your Ubuntu is and click on OK button
Select the hard disk where you want Grub to be installed (usually the first one)
Grub was installed OK confirmation / Grub was not installed error will appear
Look for System -> Shutdown in the top tray in order to halt your machine

Recovery Using the Unofficial "Super Grub Disk"

Note about grub2: The methods regarding "Super Grub Disk" described here do not
work with grub2 but with grub legacy. That means that you should not use them for
fresh Ubuntu 9.10 install or Ubuntu newer versions.

From within Windows

Download Auto Super Grub Disk
Double-click auto_super_grub_disk_1.7 icon, install it, and reboot.
On the next boot, select the UNetbootin-supergrubdisk menu entry; this will launch
the Auto Super Grub Disk.
Do nothing till you see your Grub menu again.
Next time you boot Windows, click yes when asked to remove UNetbootin-
supergrubdisk to remove the Super Grub Disk menu entry.

As a standalone cd/floppy/usb
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.

Preserving Windows Bootloader

The method shown above puts GRUB back on the MBR (Master Boot Record) of the hard
drive instead of in the root partition. If you use a third-party boot manager like Boot Magic or
System Commander you probably won't want to do that. This method could also be used to
restore the Grub menu after a re-ghosting. If this is the case, use this alternative.

NOTE: This alternative, used without a third-party boot manager, will not cause Ubuntu to
boot.

This method will let you boot your second hard disk Linux installations from Windows
while the Using the Ubuntu Desktop/Live CD. Preserving Windows Bootloader
instructions will not.

Either:

Download Super Grub Disk

Burn into a cdrom (suggested) or a floppy
Boot from it

Or:

Download UNetbootin Super Grub Disk Loader (Windows .exe version)

Run the installer and reboot when once done installing.
On the next boot, select the "UNetbootin-supergrubdisk" menu entry; this will launch
the Super Grub Disk interface.

Then:

Pick the Super Grub Disk (WITH HELP) :-))) option

Select your language from the list
Choose Windows
Select: Windows chainloads Grub!
Select the Linux or Grub installation you want to restore to its own partition.
You see the message: SGD has done it!
Reboot
You're done.

Recovery Using the Ubuntu Alternate/Install CD

This section explains how to rescue Grub, using the Ubuntu Alternate/install CD.

1. Enter your computers BIOS to check computer can boot from CD ROM. If you can
boot from CD, insert CD ROM into drive. Exit the BIOS (if needed save your settings
to make sure the computer boots from the CD ROM).
2. When the Ubuntu splash screen comes up with the boot: prompt, type in rescue
and press enter.
3. Choose your language, location (country) and then keyboard layout as if you were
doing a fresh install.
4. Enter a host name, or leave it with the default (Ubuntu).
5. At this stage you are presented with a screen where you can select which partition is
your root partition (there is a list of the partitions on your hard drive, so you are
required to know which partition number Ubuntu is on). This will be
dev/discs/disc0/partX, where the X is a partition number.
6. you are then presented with a command prompt (a hash).
7. type

$ grub-install /dev/XXX

where XXX is the device of your Ubuntu install. (eg: grub-install /dev/""hda"" or grub-
install /dev/""sdb"" ). Note: newer 2.6.xx kernels call all hard disks ""sdx"" now but not sure
if grub does.

The GUI Way: Using the Alternate/Install CD and Overwriting the

Windows bootloader
1. Boot your computer with the Ubuntu CD
2. Go through the installation process until you reach "[!!!] Disk Partition"
3. Select Manual Partition
4. Mount your appropriate linux partitions:
/
/boot
swap
...
5. DO NOT FORMAT THEM.
6. Finish the manual partition
7. Say "Yes" when it asks you to save the changes
8. It will give you errors saying that "the system couldn't install ....." after that
9. Ignore them, keep select "continue" until you get back to the Ubuntu installation menu
10. Jump to "Install Grub ...."
11. Once it is finished, just restart your computer

From: http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Restore_Grub and

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=76652

Recovery Using Third-Party Proprietary Software

This software runs only under Microsoft Windows.

EasyBCD software allows Microsoft Windows users to boot into multiple operating systems,
including Ubuntu Linux.

Troubleshooting
This section applies to...

Dual-boot setups in which Windows was installed after Ubuntu

Conditions where Windows failure forced a re-installation
Windows recovery techniques involving the "restoration" of the MBR
Cases where GRUB failed to install

Prerequisites:

Your Ubuntu partitions are all still intact

You have a LiveCD, such as the Ubuntu Desktop CD or the Knoppix Live CD
You're familiar enough with your LiveCD to gain access to a console
You remember how you set up your partitions (having a printout of /etc/fstab is
ideal, though you can make do with the output of fdisk -l /dev/hda)
Knowledge of how your kernel works (specifically with regards to initrd), if you're
using a non-Ubuntu kernel or you have built your own
Your kernel's version; this howto assumes 2.6.10-5-386

Preparing Your Working Environment

To begin the restoration procedure, insert your LiveCD and reboot your computer. Proceed
with your LiveCD's bootup procedure until you are presented with an interface. If your
LiveCD does not immediately present you with a console, also called a terminal, open one --
to do this with the Ubuntu LiveCD, click Applications -> System Tools -> Terminal.

Note: Since this is a LiveCD environment, any changes to user accounts or filesystem
layouts at this level will not be permanent. This means you can set a temporary root password
and create directories without affecting your actual installation.

Now, you need to gain root access. Under Ubuntu, this can be done with the following
commands:

sudo -i

Under Knoppix, the following command will suffice, and you will not be prompted for a
password.

su -

Now that you have root access, you need to mount the partition(s) containing your
bootloader files.

You will need access to both your /sbin/ and /boot/ directories. If you have a
/boot/ listing in your fstab, you are among those who will need to mount two
partitions.

Begin by creating a mount point for your working environment -- you'll notice this is the
same as creating a directory.

mkdir /mnt/work

If you need to mount /boot/, too, run the following command.

mkdir /mnt/work/boot

Now it's time to actually load your filesystem data. Review your fstab and identify the
location(s) of / and /boot/; these will likely look something like /dev/hda3 and
/dev/hda4, though the letter 'a' and the numbers 3 and 4 may differ.

Note: For the remainder of this howto, /dev/hda3 and /dev/hda4 will be assumed, so
alter them as needed when typing them in yourself.

Enter the following commands to load your filesystem and some information GRUB may
need.

mount /dev/hda4 /mnt/work

mount -o bind /dev /mnt/work/dev
mount -o bind /proc /mnt/work/proc
cp /proc/mounts /mnt/work/etc/mtab

Now, you have to enter your working environment. The following command will take care
of that.

chroot /mnt/work/ /bin/bash

Warning: From this point on, any files you modify will affect your Ubuntu system. You
have left the safety of the LiveCD. Exercise caution.

Recovering GRUB Automatically

If you have a separate /boot/ partition, type the following line.

sudo mount /dev/hda3 /boot/

Reinstalling GRUB from this point is easy. Just enter the following command.

sudo /sbin/grub-install /dev/hda

If the command you used above failed, which is unlikely, you will need to configure GRUB
manually (it isn't too hard). If it succeeded, you should read the note at the start of the final
section: "Configuring the GRUB Menu".

Recovering GRUB Manually

Before you can undertake the next step, it's important that you understand how GRUB
identifies partitions.
To GRUB, numbers begin with 0, and letters are expressed numerically, also beginning with
0.

For example, /dev/hda1 is "hd0,0" to GRUB. Similarly, /dev/hdb3 is "hd1,2".

Note: The "root" line must point to the location of your /boot/ partition if you have one. If
you do not have one, point it at your / partition.

sudo /sbin/grub
grub> root (hd0,2)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

Configuring the GRUB Menu

Note: This step does not need to be done if you're just trying to recover your MBR. Installing
Windows will not alter the contents of your existing menu.lst, so if everything was
working right before, everything will continue to work right now, and you can restart your
computer.

Open the GRUB menu file, /boot/grub/menu.lst, with your favourite text editor.
An example follows.

sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

Note: Your menu.lst file is used to control the operating systems GRUB displays on
startup, as well as its visual appearance. This howto will only explain how to get your
operating systems to boot, it will not tell you how to make your bootloader pretty.

A sample menu.lst, stripped of unnecessary comments, appears below. It is based on the

/dev/hda3 and /dev/hda4 example above, and assumes Windows resides at
/dev/hda1.

timeout 5 #The number of seconds GRUB should wait before booting an OS

default 0 #The entry which should be booted by default
fallback 1 #The entry which should be booted in the event of the first
one failing

title Ubuntu, 2.6.10 #A 32-bit Ubuntu entry

#This (or something like it) should be in your configuration
root (hd0,2)
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.10-5-386 root=/dev/hda4

title Ubuntu, 2.6.10 #Another 32-bit Ubuntu entry

#This is an example of an Ubuntu entry which does not have a separate
/boot/ partition
#(it is provided only as an alternate to the example above -- do not use
them together)
root (hd0,2)
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-5-386

title Microsoft Windows XP Home #An entry for a Windows installation

#If you're reading this guide, you probably want this
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

And that's it. Save and close the file, then reboot and try out the entries.

GRUB Resources
GRUB Manual
GRUB homepage
GRUB wiki
Recovering grub after installing Windows to dual-boot
Linux+Win+Grub HowTo
Rescatux - Ready to go cdrom that restores Grub on MBR thanks to a graphical
 wizard (among many other options)
Super Grub Disk - Ready to go cdrom or floppy that restores Grub on MBR
automatically
GRUB for DOS

CategoryLive CategoryBackupRecovery CategoryBootAndPartition CategoryInstallation

RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows (l'ultima modifica è del 2010-12-31 21:44:54, fatta da

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