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I had installed Ubuntu 12.04 on a separate partition, in ext4 format in my comp, which initially had only Windows 7. I had done the installation from a Live USB, which gave me the option Install on boot, in a GRUB menu.

I had chosen the option of "Installing Ubuntu alongside Windows". I had chosen the particular partition during the install, and in mount part, I had given /.

And I chose my only hard disk drive as the location to install the bootloader. The whole install process was over, and I was asked to restart, and while doing to it asked me to remove my installation media, which in my case was a Live USB.

I acted accordingly and removed it. While booting however, it booted directly in Windows, and no menu or option came for me to choose from both.

arjith
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  • First thing to try is to hold down the Shift key while booting. It's a long shot, but if Grub (the bootloader) is installed, just not appearing that should force it out of hiding.. – agc93 May 24 '12 at 02:02
  • Put the USB back in and boot and see what happens, as well. – wojox May 24 '12 at 02:16
  • agc93 , I have tried holding down the shift key with negative results. @wojox , it gives me a menu to install ubuntu, or to try without instlling, or to check disc for error. i tried the third one, and it said 0 errors – arjith May 24 '12 at 02:56
  • Do one thing , If you still have your Live Usb, please run Ubuntu .Start installation (But don't install), then at the Gparted Partition Menu ,take the screenshot and post it here, if you cant post screenshot ,post it somewhere and provide the link here. – atenz May 24 '12 at 07:43
  • @tijybba , the live usb booted ubuntu does not detect my Micromax 3G stick, which i've posted in another question on <askubuntu.com> I tried taking screenshots in ubuntu, pasting it in a common drive and then uploading it from windows, however, it says the image format is not supported, eventhough it is simple png format. kinda freaking out cos i need this installed within 2 days cos my net pack gets over in 2. What queries you have regarding my partitions kindly ask i'll explain. – arjith May 24 '12 at 09:39
  • If you are Ok with it then Do a Fresh installation again , but Please select Custom Installation ( I guess the Last option there), then select your ext4 partition as "/" , and then at the Bootloader Installation option Select Your Hard Drive (most probably /sda) and Not LiveUsb . And after installation completes you will get your Grub Menu to select the OS to boot into , if Windows 7 doesn't shows up there then in ubuntu Terminal type sudo update-grub and Windows will be detected. – atenz May 24 '12 at 14:19
  • sir ( @tijybba ), i had done precisely what you had said here multiple times, giving the results mentioned in my question. i'll try it once again though – arjith May 25 '12 at 03:17
  • here is a view of the gparted, from live usb boot . i've now formatted everything and will attempt a fresh install based on your further instructions. Click here to view the image – arjith May 25 '12 at 06:43
  • Is it working, are you done with it. – atenz May 26 '12 at 17:54
  • nope! Not working. Now i formatted all to ntfs and using in windows till i know for sure how exactly to make it detected after installing it – arjith May 28 '12 at 02:04
  • Please move your comments to edits in your post so that they can be seen without being "buried". Also, if you are using advanced partitioning, you need to install the bootloader at /dev/sda, not /dev/sda#. You can't have a number after it for the place where you choose to install your bootloader. – nanofarad Aug 14 '12 at 11:58

4 Answers4

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Maybe there is a Windows recovery environment (just maybe) and you chose that place as the place to install GBUB.

Whatever reason, follow these steps to restore GRUB.

Keep in mind that it doesn't overwrite the MBR, instead it adds a GRUB entry to the windows Bootloader.

Source

  1. Download Easybcd here. It's a tool that can edit the windows bootloader and it is a very popular program along Windows-Ubuntu users.
  2. Open EasyBCD.
  3. Go to "Add new entry"> Linux/BSD and then select GRUB2 from the dropdown menu. Name the entry whatever you want, like "I love linux" or "Ubuntu GRUB".

enter image description here

That's it! You should see a GRUB entry in the Windows boot menu when you reboot. Select it and choose "Ubuntu generic . . . . . .pae" from the GRUB menu(if the installation failed then you might not see it).

Good Luck!

Emerson Hsieh
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  • I'll try that and tell you whether i was successful, however i have one query, will doing this affect in anyway my windows OS? or will it be difficult to uninstall in future? (I'm gonna do this anyway, however just wanted to know) – arjith May 24 '12 at 02:57
  • I didnt choose any place to install GRUB, i just used '/' in mount and chose dev/sda which is my only harddisc to install the bootloader – arjith May 24 '12 at 03:00
  • I tried it, and the mentioned option came in windows boot menu, however,it goes to a dos like scree, called GRUB-(SOME VERSION)-DOS, asking me to type some path or command, similar to bash, which i dont know, i also dont know where the bootloader file is. So wat should i do now? – arjith May 24 '12 at 03:35
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    listen, i'm getting a screen with nothing but grub> – arjith May 24 '12 at 07:53
  • there is a windows recovery environment, however i had given the location of the harddisc and not the partition of windows recovery as the location to install bootloader – arjith May 24 '12 at 08:45
  • please reply @emersonhsieh , for i had tried ur method without success – arjith May 24 '12 at 10:02
  • Sorry for that. Did the prompt say "grub-rescue"? If it does then maybe GRUB didn't install properly. Maybe try re-install Ubuntu. And there is no problem with windows and easybcd, only grub. – Emerson Hsieh May 24 '12 at 23:13
  • it didnt say grub rescue. and i've tried installing again. Now i have formatted the linux drives here is a view of the gparted app: Click here to view the image do have a look and help me out @emersonhsieh :) – arjith May 25 '12 at 06:42
  • Linux partitions use the ext4 filesystem, not NTFS. When you format your linux drives select the ext4 format and reformat it again. You probably chose NTFS while installing ubuntu. BTW what does the prompt say? – Emerson Hsieh May 25 '12 at 22:17
  • nope i didnt choose ntfs, i had chosen ext4 initially, since ubuntu was not working out, i thought why not have it temporarily for windows. and prompt says : grub> @emersonhsieh – arjith May 26 '12 at 09:33
  • Maybe reinstall Ubuntu again. If it doesn't work, then maybe your computer is not compatible with ubuntu. Do you have any specs? – Emerson Hsieh May 26 '12 at 22:18
  • Also a corrupted copy of the ubuntu installation media can be the problem. Do a MD5SUM with Hashcalc http://www.slavasoft.com/hashcalc/ and check the values here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuHashes . If the values are different, redownload ubuntu. – Emerson Hsieh May 26 '12 at 22:20
  • And the specs: Lenovo Ideapad Z570 , Intel 2nd Gen i5 , 3GB DDR3 RAM, 640GB HDD , 1 GB NVIDEA GEFORCE dedicated graphics , windows 7 HP (came pre installed). – arjith May 28 '12 at 02:07
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It worked for me. I had installed Ubuntu 12.04 alongside Windows 7. But in boot menu there was just Windows 7. By using easyBCD I have it solved and now I have Ubuntu in boot menu. Notice that I wrote Ubuntu 12.04 instead of Ubuntu 10.04 which is seen above.

jokerdino
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Hossein
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My bad. I had downloaded the 64 bit version, since I had an x64 Windows OS. But then I tried the i386 32-bit one, and it is working perfectly. I thank you all for your help.

Eliah Kagan
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arjith
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You can also create GRUB Boot Menu entry using Boot Repair.
Prepare a Live boot USB or CD. Live Boot your computer. Instead of Installing Ubuntu, Select Try Ubuntu. When Ubuntu OS boots up and ready for use. Go Terminal, Type the following commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair

Once installation is finished. Type boot-repair.
You will get the window like this.

enter image description here

Click Recommended Repair. It will create all Boot Menu entries.
For more details,visit Boot Repair.

prabhakar711
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