Grub Rescue HELP!

AnAngelsDeath

AnAngelsDeath

Gawd
Joined
Feb 6, 2006
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813
So basically I am an Idiot and I messed up my install of Ubuntu 12.04 that i had dual booted with Windows 8.1. I tried to update to 13.04 and That's what messed it up at first. It wouldn't let me boot into Ubuntu anymore. Every time I chose Ubuntu it would go to a black screen and that's it. Entered the recovery a few times and attempted repair but to no avail. So I booted into windows. Got Ubuntu 13.04 iso and made a bootable DVD.

Now here is where I am an idiot. For some reason I thought I should just delete all of the partitions Ubuntu was on so I could start fresh. So I did so and rebooted. Instead of booting into my DVD I got the grub rescue command line. And that's all I can get now. Won't let me go into bios or boot menu, so I have no way to set it to boot from disc drive in order to boot from either my boot-repair disc or Ubuntu DVD. So I have absolutely no idea what to do now. I'm usually pretty good at fixing PC's but this one is a bit above my pay grade. No

Any ideas ?
 
Try removing the hard drive to access the bios.
According to this, holding esc can get to bios, http://askubuntu.com/questions/318796/when-trying-to-enter-bios-gnu-grub-screen-appears

I messed up a xp / linux dual boot system a while ago and managed to get it running again but that's my only experience with this.

What partitions did you have before deleting them? Did you start reinstalling ubuntu after deleting the partitions? Have you modified the partitons much on this hard drive in the past?
I'm hoping that restoring the deleted partitions will at least get you back to where you were before.

You'll want to get parted magic (https://partedmagic.com/) and super grub 2 disk (http://www.supergrubdisk.org/super-grub2-disk/) live cds.

If you can get it to boot from cds:
First try and see if you can use super grub 2 disk to boot into anything. According to the website it doesn't write to the disk so it won't damage anything further (but also won't actually fix things).
Then run gparted from the parted magic (or ubuntu) live cd and note down all the information you can get about the sizes and positions of the remaining partitions.
Then run the TestDisk (website: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) program that's on the parted magic live cd. You'll need to scan the hard drive for partitions (very slow). It'll give you a list of what it found and you can then assign different partitions as primary / extended / logical / deleted and apply that to the mbr. When I did it I had been moving and resizing partitions so it found the original partitions that were no longer valid as well as the current ones that I wanted to restore. So you'll want to be careful and select the right ones.

Hopefully this will be at least some help and let me know how it goes.
 
Thanks bro, I'm gonna try those suggestions right now.

To answer your questions. First off, I had my laptop set-up as a dual-boot systsm, windows & Ubuntu 12.04. New to using any of the Linux distros. Originally installed it about a month ago in knew 4 so this mod I helped develop for fixing a Hard Bricked Galaxy S3. Liked Ubuntu so much that kept it.

My partitions were set up as follows;

Windows 8 -
System
Storage
Recovery portion

Then I had a shared Partition for Win/Ubuntu

Ubuntu 12.04
/
Linux Swap

And that was it. And I deleted the 2 Linux partitions and the shared one since I hadn't put anything in there from either OS.

Windows is still good to go, but since they share an MBR
it won't let me into windows because it was deleted with Linux. I was unaware of all this since this was my first for time trying to remove a Linux distro. Definitely a major job moment. Especially for someone who does development for android lol (in my spare time tho. I am definitely a professional. I am an engineer/producer St a recording studio here in Seattle.

Anyways, thanks again. I will try those after I wake up a bit and I will post my results.
 
Yea so far no go. I've tried so many things. This is completely ridiculous. I am pretty well versed in PC's. I even have a lil side business building and repairing Custom PC's. I shoulda known better. I didn't realize how the MBR works with dual-booted linux/windows machines. I figured if I just deleted the Ubuntu partitions it would just allow me to run windows. But apparently they share an MBR once configured to dual boot. So deleting one effects both. I feel like such a noob. But I ztkl really don't get why it won't let me boot to BIOS or launch the Boot Menu. From what I am reading b this might mean the HD Is Bricked And Need replacing.

So unless anyone has some more ideas on to get to the bios or boot menu. Then I guess a new hdd is going to be ordered from Newegg.
This hasn't scared me away from Ubuntu/Linux or anything. I loved using it and can't wait to get back to it. Hopefully soon.

Also, is there a grub command I can use to reboot to the BIOS or Boot Menu. Also heard about a Bootloader but wasn't sure if this was legit or not. Anyone know something about that ?
 
The hard drive should be recoverable once you can boot a live cd.

This might be useful http://planetstephanie.net/2009/05/27/grub2-rescue-mode/

From what I can gather from that site, if you use the "exit" command in the console it will go to the bios's next boot device. It should also be possible to use console commands to boot the cd (I think).

This site seems like it might be useful as well http://members.iinet.net/~herman546...html#How_To_Boot_An_Operating_System_Directly
also http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1599293&p=9987717#post9987717
 
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The root of the problem here is that you can't get into your BIOS, and so can't use your Windows repair disk. I don't think that's related to GRUB or you wiping the Ubuntu partition. Did you have some kind of BIOS option to quick boot and you don't have enough time to press the key to load the BIOS?

I would research your laptop to see if there's some kind of key combination to let you get into the BIOS... or a jumper or button somewhere to clear the CMOS.
 
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