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[BkS]

Hello all,

I'm in need of assistance in what I should do. Currently I do not have any distro of Linux installed. I was only using the Windows 10 Tech Preview, however I have had a strange occurrence.

Last night whilst sleeping, my computer woke up from sleep mode, I assumed Windows update was trying to install updates or something, so I just shut it down and went back to sleep.

When I woke up this morning, the boot screen said:

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GRUB>
GRUB rescue> no such partition

This got me worried. I know from previous usage of Ubuntu and Peppermint that GRUB is the Linux bootloader. So that left me pretty bummed before I left for work.

I'm now back from work and currently using an old liveCD of Peppermint 2 (I know right! lol). I've had to boot it various times to get it to play nice with my computer, so now I shall explain my dilemma.

Currently as is, I have no other computer to burn a liveCD or liveUSB. I do have an empty 4gb usb drive.

My options as I see them are to download a ISO image and burn a new livecd onto it, or possibly even a Windows repair disk.

Or if someone here is nice enough, can guide me through manually repairing grub, so that I can at least boot into Windows.

I understand you fellas aren't obliged to help Windows users, but this has been the 4th time this month that I've lost my bootloader through Windows update, so I plan on dual-booting.

Personally I think this time around it has been a RAT, but I won't ever know.


Currently I have 3 drives in my machine. I know that /dev/sdc1 is my boot drive.  /dev/sda1 is my backup drive (G:/)  & /dev/sdb1 is my drive with all my games and steam library (D:/).

[BkS]

Running:

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sudo fdisk -l

shows the following:

[spoiler][email protected] ~ $ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2b7e7ae6

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1           1           0+  42  SFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2   *           1       60802   488384512   42  SFS
/dev/sda3           60802       60802        1016   42  SFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x39c692b5

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       60802   488385528+  42  SFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000b95bd

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1       30402   244195328    7  HPFS/NTFS
[/spoiler]

[SeZo]

I assume you had a Linux distro installed on one or more drives before, so grub would have been installed to one of them. (possibly /dev/sda).
Are you sure the boot order was not changed in the BIOS when you shut it down?
Alternatively Win could have wiped it's own boot record so now there is only one bootable drive, which points to a non-existent linux installation.

[BkS]

The drives are reused old ones from old laptops. So it's quite possible.

It does seem that Windows has wiped it's own boot record, I know how to fix it from within Windows, I just need to get there first lol. I'm pretty sure I haven't touched the drive boot order in the BIOS because I haven't been in it since July.

It seems that the repos for Natty are no longer existent so I can't even install Unetbootin to make a bootable USB.

Not really sure what my next step should be. 

[SeZo]

You could always pick up a Linux Magazine with a live CD from your local Sainsburys or like.

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

I have no idea how the Ubuntu installer will deal with SAN formatted partitions.

So if I were you, I'd boot Peppermint 2 then install it dual boot stylie on /dev/sdc(n) (obviously shrinking dev/sdc1 in the process) with GRUB installed to /sda

then cross your fingers that GRUB (os-prober) picks up the Windows OS (with it being on a weird file system)



But if the main problem here is just burning a LiveUSB .. see here on how to activate the "old-releases" repositories:
http://www.warpconduit.net/2011/07/31/apt-repository-for-old-ubuntu-releases/ (http://www.warpconduit.net/2011/07/31/apt-repository-for-old-ubuntu-releases/)

[BkS]

Nevermind, I've fixed my issue. Raided my CD stack and found the old trusty Win 7 repair disk.

Dropped to a CMD console and did:

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bootrec.exe /fixmbr

Now I need to burn a LiveCD that's more up-to-date, and a LiveUSB just incase.

Thanks for the suggestion though gents I'll be back in another thread with separate issues no doubt, haha!

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

Cool