GRUB Detects Windows 7 on a Drive that Never Had Win7 Installed

[Xplorer4x4]

Ok so when I set up my system I unplugged all my HDDs except my SSD boot drive. Now when I boot with my HDDs plugged in I get a grey screen(GRUB?) on boot up that says Windows 7(loader) is available on sda1. When I fired up KDE Partition Manager I looked to see which drive was sda1. It was my 2TB WD Caviar Green SATA III. This drive has never had Win 7 installed on it, so I am confused why it claims Windows 7 is on there. :s

[capt-zero]

Try "sudo update-grub2" in the terminal window. This should update your grub to your present setup. I'm not sure why it assigned sda1 for your Windows location, but when you change your hardware after installing Kubuntu you need to let grub know where everything is. The command update-grub2 will do this for you.

[SteveRiley]

A couple questions...

* What is the boot order listed in your BIOS?
* Mind showing us the output of sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdX for each drive in your machine?

[Xplorer4x4]

Thanks for the reply zapt-zero but looks like it still detects windows. Here is the output from updating GRUB:
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-25-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-25-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-23-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda1
Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sdb1
done

[Xplorer4x4]

@Steve, the boot order should still have my SSD first but I would need to double check. Otherwise the drives are just in a random order.

Here is the out put you asked for:

xplorer4x4@xplorer4x4-MS-7673:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbaf4ec2f

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 3907026943 1953512448 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT


xplorer4x4@xplorer4x4-MS-7673:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb

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: 0xa7ecdbea

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 2048 1953520064 976759008+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT


xplorer4x4@xplorer4x4-MS-7673:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc

Disk /dev/sdc: 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: 0x9875e922

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 63 1953520064 976760001 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT


xplorer4x4@xplorer4x4-MS-7673:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdd

Disk /dev/sdd: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 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: 0x0005ae33

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 * 2048 139585535 69791744 83 Linux
/dev/sdd2 139587582 156301311 8356865 5 Extended
/dev/sdd5 139587584 156301311 8356864 82 Linux swap / Solaris

xplorer4x4@xplorer4x4-MS-7673:~$

Note that one HDD is not connected and my optical drive is not connected as I have to hot swap them(long story).

[SteveRiley]

I was hunting for a hidden restore partition possibly left over from a prior Windows install. But these are usually small and have an identifiable label; the output of your various fdisks shows nothing that looks like this.

The name of the Windows boot loader is NTLDR. Can you find any such file anywhere on your drives?

[Xplorer4x4]

Locate turned up nothing for NTLDR.

[SteveRiley]

This is weird! Let's see your /boot/grub/grub.cfg ...

[Xplorer4x4]

Coming right up:
http://pastebin.com/6duyWtDc

[SteveRiley]

Last guess: those disks might have an MBR that contains the Windows stub boot loader. Possibly they came from the factory that way? Not sure, really.

If you're feeling especially venturesome, you can erase the bootstrap loader but retain the partition table with some creative use of dd:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1

The MBR is 512 bytes. The first 446 bytes hold the MBR bootstrap loader. The remaining 66 bytes contain the partition table, which you don't want to erase.

[Xplorer4x4]

If you're feeling especially venturesome,

How venturesome? lol I know there are some MBR tools out there. Would one of them possibly be able to provide more info about the boot sector? Isn;t it possible to write a whole new mbr with out risking the data?

Possibly they came from the factory that way?

It was a warranty replacement from WD after my old 2TB SATA II died..so that seems to be the only logical explanation imo. This drive as been used for data storage only since Day 1.

[SteveRiley]

Here's the structure of an MBR:



As you can see, it has two principal parts: the bootstrap loader and the partition table. Since you aren't booting from either of those hard drives, the bootstrap loader portion should be empty. dd-ing zeros into the first 446 bytes will take care of that. The partition table itself is preserved.

The beauty of dd is its power: you could always back up the entire MBR first, in case something goes wrong:

sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=save.mbr bs=512 count=1

You can then take a look at it:

od -xa save.mbr

Then, should you need to, you can restore it:

sudo dd if=save.mbr of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

I did a bit of Googling, and it looks like these techniques have been used to solve what appears to be your specific problem. See "MBR Tricks with Linux".

[Xplorer4x4]

Well I took your advice and zeroed out the portion of the mbr...and rebooted..and it still presented me with GRUB showing 2 instances of Windows 7 Loader...sda and sdb. I do not recall if sdb showed up last time or not. sdb has never had windows on it either..:s

[SteveRiley]

Did you run

sudo update-grub

before you rebooted?

[Xplorer4x4]

Nope but I dont think it matters, I can reboot just to be sure but..

xplorer4x4@xplorer4x4-MS-7673:~$ sudo update-grub
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-25-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-25-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-23-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda1
Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sdb1
done

BTW, thanks for all the help Steve.