How To Restore Grub In Ubuntu

If you install a dual boot of Windows or Mac OSX on your Ubuntu machine, you may find that your Grub bootloader are wiped out and you can’t boot into any of your OS. If this is the case, the only way is to restore Grub back in your Ubuntu system.

Restoration of Grub is very easy. All you need is the Ubuntu Live CD (you should already have it if you install Ubuntu).

Boot up your live CD
In the desktop, open terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal).

sudo grub

This will set it to grub mode

find /boot/grub/stage1

This will locate your boot partition. If you already know the location, you can ignore this step.

root (hd0,0)

Replace the (hd0,0) by your boot partition number. If your Ubuntu is installed in the second partition, then change it to (hd0,1)

setup (hd0)
quit

Reboot your system. You should be able to access the Grub bootloader now.

Damien Oh is the owner and chief editor of Make Tech Easier

 

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6 Responses

  • meka4996 says:

    Super Grub Disk rocks! Multi Linux!!
    repair restore recover [reinstall] linux GRUB bootloader/menu,
    or multi OS/distro multi disks/partitions MBR!
    It works on my ubuntu 7.04 in 1 minute!
    see their wiki for
    “SGD Quick Menu”
    “Multi Distribution Boot Howto”
    “Boot Problems”
    “Howto Fix Grub”

    Reply

  • Cun says:

    Argh…

    I have tried Super Grub Disc, and i have tried your suggestion as mentioned above, still it didn’t work. My screen showed:
    error with boot.ini

    then in continued boot to xp.

    Reply

    Damien Reply:

    Perhaps you want to try with the Ubuntu Live CD rather than the SuperGrub Disc? It worked for me 100% of the time.

    Reply

  • Sarahana T Kaasyapa says:

    Hi,im having Vista installed 1st then Ubuntu in my laptop,once i booted i get like dis
    Ubuntu 8.10
    Other Operating Systems:
    Windows Vista (loader)

    I’m able to boot into Ubuntu,but when i select Windows Vista and press enter, it says

    Starting up…
    This is not a bootable disk. Please insert a bootable floppy and press any key to try again…

    kindly let me know how to recover the process to boot into Windows Vista

    Reply

    Stavros Ioannidis Reply:

    You find a Windows Vista Recovery disc and restore your installation.

    Then with the procedure described here you restore grub, and then you can boot both OSs :)

    Hope it’s helpful

    Reply

  • thegoutap says:

    yup its great……

    but many have the prob with stage1 not being found

    i.e $find /boot/grub/stage1
    gives an error of not found or so..

    in this case we need to mount the boot
    here’s it is ..coz i faced the same prob

    then type the following using a live cd of ubuntu or any..and in terminal

    use sudo whereever needed
    mkdir /mnt/orange/
    mount /dev/XXX? /mnt/orange (XXX i.e.sda1..)
    chroot /mnt/orange /bin/bash
    grub-install /dev/XXX (XXX i.e . hd0)

    Reply

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