Restoring the MBR on a CD-ROM less Notebook

Wed May 19 12:58:59 UTC 2010

On 05/19/2010 04:59 AM, Goh Lip wrote:
> On 05/19/2010 03:07 PM, Amichai Rotman wrote:
>    
>> Hey Tom,
>>
>> Thank for the great info, except there isn't any Linux on it now. I need
>> to re-create Windows 7 boot loader or whatever.
>>
>> I started a live Ubuntu 10.04 stick and I found out the partitin I need
>> to boot is /dev/sda2...
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> .:====================================================:.
>>
>> Amichai Rotman
>>
>> Registered Linux User#: 201192 [http://counter.li.org/]
>> Registered Ubuntu User #12851 [http://ubuntucounter.geekosophical.net]
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> .:====================================================:.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 07:22, Tom H<tomh0665 at gmail.com
>> <mailto:tomh0665 at gmail.com>>  wrote:
>>
>>      On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 3:37 PM, Amichai Rotman<amichai at iglu.org.il
>>      <mailto:amichai at iglu.org.il>>  wrote:
>>       >  My sister bought a new Asus UL20A. I managed to convince her to
>>      give Ubuntu
>>       >  a try (it came with Windows 7 pre-installed), So i installed
>>      10.04 on it.
>>       >  It has a single 320 Gb HDD, I was very careful not to wipe the
>>      recovery
>>       >  partition, but I had to cut the original system partition (disk
>>      C:) into 2
>>       >  partitions for Swap. so:
>>       >  It had a Disk C: (I think about 80 Gb in size) and the rest as
>>      disk D: for
>>       >  data.
>>       >  I chose to manually partition the drive during the installation
>>      and deleted
>>       >  the 80 Gb partition and created a 1024 MB for swap and the rest for /
>>       >  (root), the rest - i didn't touch.
>>       >  After installation, the last option in the GRUB menu was Windows
>>      Vista
>>       >  (although it was actually Windows 7). I didn't give it much
>>      thought...
>>       >  The deal was she tries Ubuntu for a week, then she decides if she
>>      wants to
>>       >  keep it or go back to Windows 7. Regrettably - she chose the
>>      latter.She has
>>       >  to go abroad for 3 months and she's affraid she will be stuck and
>>      no one
>>       >  will know how to help her. She said she had nothing against Linux
>>      but...
>>       >  I tried to launch the recovery process by pressing F9 during boot
>>      - but
>>       >  nothing happened. I then tried to boot from
>>      that mysterious option on the
>>       >  menu - an what da ya know ! it's the recovery process! So it went
>>      about
>>       >  recovering - just as if I pressed F9 - and then told me
>>      the recovery was
>>       >  done and I should click OK to shut down.
>>       >  And here is the part I need help with: The next time I pressed
>>      the power
>>       >  button - it says there is an error and gives me the "grub
>>      rescue>" prompt...
>>       >  Please help me! There is no CD ROM drive, no recovery DVD media
>>      supplied (a
>>       >  note that came with the computer says one is not supplied with
>>      this model).
>>       >  How do I boot from USB stick and recover the Windows 7 MBR / Boot
>>      loader?!
>>       >  All I have is my on Ubuntu Lucid on both my Desktop and my Netbook...
>>
>>      At the grub rescue prompt:
>>
>>      Run "ls" to display your disks and partitions
>>
>>      Run "set" and check the values of "root" and "prefix"
>>
>>      If "root" and "prefix" are incorrect (if you do not know what they
>>      should be, run "ls (hdX,Y)/boot" for the different values of X and Y
>>      since search isn't available in rescue mode), run
>>      set root=(hdX,Y)
>>      set prefix=(hdX,Y)/boot/grub
>>      to set them to the correct values
>>
>>      Run
>>      insmod normal.mod
>>      or, if necessary,
>>      insmod /boot/grub/normal.mod
>>
>>      Run
>>      linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.x.x root=/dev/sdXY ro
>>      initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.x.x
>>      boot
>>      (use tab completion)
>>
>>      --
>>      ubuntu-users mailing list
>>      ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com<mailto:ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>      Modify settings or unsubscribe at:
>>      https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
>>
>>
>>      
> Since most of us here are not very familiar with windows, there is a
> method of recovery using the installation cd. (fixboot/fixmbr,
> whatever), but best you check/google it out.
>
> If you do not have the installation cd, I propose this method so you can
> boot into windows and from there, repair your mbr.
>
> [to boot to windows]
> grub rescue>  set prefix=(hd0,2)/boot/grub
> grub rescue>  insmod (hd0,2)/boot/grub/normal.mod
> rescue:grub>  normal
>
> grub>  set root=(hd0,1)
> grub>  chainloader +1
> grub>  boot
>
> [note]
> I assume from your message ubuntu is in /dev/sda2
> I also assume there is no separate /boot partition
> I again assume windows is in /dev/sda1
>
> ps: if you have a grub-rescue cd, just pop in the cd and do the
> 'grub>' thing.
>
> [at this point, you should be in windows, else I'll give up too]
>
> Now, at windows, open a command and do this
> X:\windows\system32>bootrec /FixMbr
>
> caveat: not sure if this will work, no reason to try it.
> if this doesn't work, then download easybcd, run the .exe file and
> repair accordingly (again repeat caveat -  why not download easybcd.exe
> first?)
>
> Hope this helps, if not, I don't think I can help you further, except
> perhaps sending you a grub rescue cd.
>
>
> If you have all this cleared, then think about using a gparted cd to
> clean up the hard drive, again, carefully.
>
> Regards - Goh Lip
>
>    
     Yes this is a "Pure Windows Question" and I must say those are 
weird to a person using Linux :-[

73 Karl


-- 

	Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
	Linux User
	#450462   http://counter.li.org.
         Key ID = 3951B48D