SOLVED: Grub Windows 7

[pretzels.man]

I am pretty new to Linux and Grub. After installing Mint alongside Windows 7, I began having grub problems.
The method that I follow to reinstall grub is to boot a Mint LiveCD, make a new directory, mount my linux partition to that directory, then use grub-install with a root directory. This gives the following error: "grub-probe: error: cannot find a device for /boot (is /dev mounted?)." It then says that installation completes successfully.

Upon reboot, grub works correctly. However, after booting into Windows and restarting the computer, I get one of two errors: either "no module found" or a "_" flashing at the top of the screen. It is a huge pain to have to reinstall grub every single time I restart the computer. If you are wondering, I can't live with just linux at this point because it is an Optimus based laptop and battery life is important to me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Aging Technogeek]

Try this:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 13#p301280

If, after this procedure, Grub does not display your Windows partition, boot into Mint and run "sudo update-grub" in terminal.

This should solve your problem. If not, post back and we will try plan B.

[pretzels.man]

Thanks, but that didn't work. Reading over that thread, it doesn't seem to address my issue directly. When I do install grub from the live cd, grub works correctly identifying all of the OSes, but booting windows breaks grub completely. One of the two errors I described above shows up on the next boot.

[oobetimer]

I am pretty new to Linux and Grub. After installing Mint alongside Windows 7, I began having grub problems.
The method that I follow to reinstall grub is to boot a Mint LiveCD, make a new directory, mount my linux partition to that directory, then use grub-install with a root directory. This gives the following error: "grub-probe: error: cannot find a device for /boot (is /dev mounted?)." It then says that installation completes successfully.

Upon reboot, grub works correctly. However, after booting into Windows and restarting the computer, I get one of two errors: either "no module found" or a "_" flashing at the top of the screen. It is a huge pain to have to reinstall grub every single time I restart the computer. If you are wondering, I can't live with just linux at this point because it is an Optimus based laptop and battery life is important to me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Grub2 does not work on every time if there is a dual-boot with windows. Install the traditional grub..

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 02#p292008

[pretzels.man]

I followed those instructions and successfully installed grub. Now, windows 7 does not show up on the list. I edited /boot/grub/menu.lst by adding:
title Windows 7
root(hd0,2)
makeactive
chainloader

I tried hd0, hd0,0, hd0,1, and hd0,2. Each time I get error 12 from grub. My fdisk -l is below:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 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: 0x7f0b6359

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 5 40131 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 6 1918 15360000 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 1918 13919 96403278 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 13920 19458 44485633 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 13920 19225 42617856 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 19225 19458 1866752 82 Linux swap / Solaris

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sdb: 1021 MB, 1021125120 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 124 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: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 125 997192 ee GPT
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(1023, 254, 63) logical=(0, 0, 2)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(1023, 254, 63) logical=(124, 36, 57)

[mick55]

It should look like this

title windows
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

[pretzels.man]

No luck. I still get Error 12 for windows 7. I tried the same combination of hds.

[oobetimer]

No luck. I still get Error 12 for windows 7. I tried the same combination of hds.

title Windows sda2
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1
boot

title Windows sda3
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
chainloader +1
boot

title Dell Something
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
boot

http://www.uruk.org/orig-grub/errors.html

[pretzels.man]

That worked. Thanks for your help. If anyone else is having a similar problem, make sure to have a space between rootnoverify and (hd0,0), otherwise you get another error.