Lost Grub after reinstalling windows 7[solved]

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amiibonovation
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Lost Grub after reinstalling windows 7[solved]

Post by amiibonovation »

So i had some problems with Windows 7 malware and had to reinstall the whole thing , after reinstalling naturally i lost the grub loader and now when computer starts goes straight into windows and i cant seem to access the linux mint installation

The way i had it setup was 2 separate drives one for windows 7 the other for linux mint, however i am not sure i can remember which drive the grub loader was on , all i know is that when i try to start the drive that contains the linux mint installation from bios it nevertheless goes to Windows so i am guessing that grub was installed to the windows drive

So now currently am in linux mint live cd/usb and trying got get grub back on but using what i can find on the internet about reinstalling grub (which all seems to be old information 2015 etc) im getting alot of problems coming up that are not mentioned in those troubleshooters , so can anyone give me an updated way to reinstall grub for my situation

im not even sure which drive i am supposed to install grub to?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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all41
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Re: Lost Grub after reinstalling windows 7

Post by all41 »

It's been a long time since I needed to do this, but there is a utility that you can download
and either install it to a cd or flash drive. It is called Rescatux see here:
https://www.supergrubdisk.org/
Use the Super Grub2 section of the utility and it will find and allow you to boot to the Linux partition.
Then once booted into Mint you can reinstall grub
Everything in life was difficult before it became easy.
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Pierre
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Re: Lost Grub after reinstalling windows 7

Post by Pierre »

that happens, every time that you re-install the Windows System :(

so,assuming that the LinuxMint is still intact. you can also try using boot-repair to re-install the Grub Loader,
or you can repair the Grub Boot Loader from the Live Install Media, if you still have that available:
http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/201 ... wont-boot/

or just use the supergrubdisk that all41 suggested . .
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gdesilva

Re: Lost Grub after reinstalling windows 7

Post by gdesilva »

Firstly, I presume you are using BIOS for booting. If so read on otherwise if you are using UEFI then check out the following https://superuser.com/questions/376470/ ... efi#376471

1. Boot the system using liveCD
2. run gparted to see what partitions are where....look for the partition type ext4 which should be the one that has Linux Mint installed assuming you did NOT create any other ext4 type partitions to install other Linux distros or created a separate /home partition for your data. If all you have is Windows and Linux Mint and you did not opt for a separate /home partition then you should be right. Note the device, /dev/sdaX which has the ext4 type partition where 'X' could be 1,2,3....etc. Close gparted.
3. On a terminal type
a. type 'sudo' which will give you admin access
b. type 'mount /dev/sdaX /mnt' where 'X' is the number you worked out using gparted earlier.
c. now type 'grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/grub /dev/sda'
d. if no errors are reported, remove LiveCD and boot into Linux Mint.
e. Once booted open a terminal, and run 'sudo update-grub' so that grub will pick up the new Windows installation.
amiibonovation
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Re: Lost Grub after reinstalling windows 7

Post by amiibonovation »

followed everything up to
sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/grub /dev/sdb
grub-probe: error: failed to get canonical path of `aufs'.
Installing for i386-pc platform.
grub-install.real: warning: this GPT partition label contains no BIOS Boot Partition; embedding won't be possible.
grub-install.real: warning: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged..
grub-install.real: error: will not proceed with blocklists.

and get this error
amiibonovation
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Re: Lost Grub after reinstalling windows 7

Post by amiibonovation »

http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/4qFhTQdzMd/

i ran that boot-repair and here is the pastebin that it gave

also said there was an error
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Pierre
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Re: Lost Grub after reinstalling windows 7

Post by Pierre »

- - You can now reboot your computer.
Please do not forget to make your BIOS boot on sdb1/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi file!

see if your BIOS can action that last line . .

does it now boot into LinuxMint / Grub Error/ something else ? ?
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Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] - when your problem is solved!
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amiibonovation
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Re: Lost Grub after reinstalling windows 7

Post by amiibonovation »

Pierre wrote: Wed Jun 27, 2018 11:40 pm - - You can now reboot your computer.
Please do not forget to make your BIOS boot on sdb1/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi file!

see if your BIOS can action that last line . .

does it now boot into LinuxMint / Grub Error/ something else ? ?
yes it now works correctly after running that boot wizard program
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Pierre
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Re: Lost Grub after reinstalling windows 7

Post by Pierre »

Jolly Good - - always Do Like a Happy Ending
8)
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Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] - when your problem is solved!
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