GRUB Rescue Solutions

09 September 2010

Yup, about Linux. GRUB fails? Here are some tips.



Some time in your happy days of using your epic Linux distro, you would face a simple and clueless problem. GRUB fails to load and gives you this grub-rescue which you don't have any idea what to do with it!

Before you proceed, you might wanna try Super Grub Disk to fix your GRUB.
http://www.supergrubdisk.org



Solutions for GRUB Failures

Situation: Unknown Filesystem / Corrupted or Deleted GRUB
When Does it Happen: Usually during repartitioning.
Solution:
1. Boot into your LiveCD.
2. Find out where you installed your distro by typing "sudo fdisk -l"
3. Mount it by typing "sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/sda6 /mnt (please change /dev/sda6 to the partition path of your installed Linux)
4. Install GRUB by typing "sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda"



Situation: Uninstalled Linux / No GRUB
When Does It Happen: When you delete the Linux partition.
Solution:
1. This is for Windows 7, to recover Windows' bootloader.
2. Boot from Window 7's System Repair Disk.
3. Open the Command Prompt.
4. Type in "Bootrec.exe /FixMbr" to overwrite the boot record.



Love,
Nicholas.