I really screwed something up with Grub [Solved]

[Wiggles]

Hey,

I'm a complete newbie to linux.

I have a 500gb drive, an 80gb and a 10gb.

I originally installed kubuntu on the 10gb, but soon realized I wanted to switch to using kubuntu as my primary os.

So I installed it on my 80gb drive, only to restart and find
error: no such disk
grub rescue>

I couldn't even boot windows, which is on the 500gb drive.

After much searching and neither fixmbr or fixboot working to fix the windows installation, I found lilo -M to do the trick. Yay Windows boots, but no grub loader. So I tried to reinstall grub, and disable the windows drive and now i get something like

error: cannot find C/H/S values
grub rescue>

re-enabled windows drive, same thing.

Ideally I'd rather not have a boot menu, and just default to booting kubuntu. I'd use win xp for games, but I don't do that much, so I'd rather disable a drive when not using it.

Thanks

[converted tux]

Re: I really screwed something up with Grub

If there is no important data on either the 80gb or 10 gb You could try to reload Kubuntu to the 10 gb and mount the 80 gb as storage, see my trials here. http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3110535.0
As far as I know the boot order is specified in bios, so as long as you set that to look for your 10 gb first it should work. If I am wrong someone please correct me.

[Wiggles]

Re: I really screwed something up with Grub

There is nothing important on either the 80 or 10. They're fresh installs.

The 80gb used to be windows, but I backed up all that information to the 500gb.

The 10 right now is un-partitioned. I guess I could try to install on the 10 again. It's a really old drive, thats why I don't want to use it. Then again I guess it wouldn't matter so much if it ended up being just a system drive.

[vinnywright]

Re: I really screwed something up with Grub

Q - do eney of the drives still have a windows instalation?
or just backed up files?

VINNY

[doctordruidphd]

Re: I really screwed something up with Grub

What version of kubuntu are you trying to install?

It sounds like what happened is you removed your original installation, but grub is still in the drive's MBR, which now points to a non-existent installation.

One thing you might try is, if physically possible, turning off your system, and unplugging the 10 and 500 drives. See if that will boot. If it does, then you may need to change your BIOS's boot settings, or plug the drives in so that the 80 is the first drive the system sees.

[Wiggles]

Re: I really screwed something up with Grub

Q - do eney of the drives still have a windows instalation?
or just backed up files?

VINNY

the 500 does, it had two partitions, one for windows the other for all files or installations


Trying to install 9.10
I haven't physically unplugged those two yet, but I have disabled them in bios to see what would happen. Says something about no system disk


Edit: I fixed it maybe sort of, haha. I unplugged the 500gb drive, and reinstalled linux. It still didn't work.

Then I decided to check the boot priority, and the 80gb was set first(linux is on 10gb), so I swapped it, and linux booted up. Yay!

Plugged the 500 back in, set it second for boot priority. Still works!

When I set the 500 first, Windows still doesn't boot up. There is no actual grub menu to choose from, which is how I like it. So I'm afraid to go and try to fix the windows boot and screw anything up.

Thanks for your help

Anyone have any suggestions for getting Windows back?

I am a complete linux noob. I ended up choosing kubuntu as blue is my favorite color haha.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: I really screwed something up with Grub

Anyone have any suggestions for getting Windows back?

Boot up your linux system with the 500 drive plugged in.
When the system is up, open a konsole terminal window. To do this, hit ALT-F2, and in the box that appears, type konsole and hit Enter.

When the prompt appears, type sudo update-grub .
It will ask you for your password.
The system will then rebuild the boot menu.
When it is done, you can shutdown and reboot. There should be an option down near the bottom of the boot menu to start windows.

[Wiggles]

Re: I really screwed something up with Grub

sweet, got it just how I want it.

I used lilo to fix the windows mbr. in doing so i get no boot menu.

I choose what to boot by setting boot drive priority.

Thanks everyone

Windows actually seems quicker getting to the login screen hmm...


Edit: Spoke to soon, for whatever reason, the grub boot menu magically showed up