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I've installed 14.04 (from 11.10), it worked first, than I tried to install the 64-bit-version, which doesn't seem to be able to boot because of my old BIOS, which does not allow "efi" boot. Now I reinstalled 14.04 32 bit, but still get a grub rescue prompt when trying to boot. Running boot-repair from live ubuntu didn't help. So here's the report boot-repair made: http://paste.ubuntu.com/7410732

Hope someone can help me ...

user271850
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  • possible dupe http://askubuntu.com/questions/88384/how-can-i-repair-grub-how-to-get-ubuntu-back-after-installing-windows – bain May 07 '14 at 16:15
  • and http://askubuntu.com/questions/386467/error-file-grub-i386-pc-normal-mod-not-found-in-ubuntu-13-10 – bain May 07 '14 at 16:39

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I tried to install the 64-bit-version, which doesn't seem to be able to boot because of my old BIOS, which does not allow "efi" boot

The 14.04 image will boot without EFI. You could also try the "amd64+mac" image which is BIOS only (no EFI).

Now I reinstalled 14.04 32 bit, but still get a grub rescue prompt when trying to boot

Boot from a livecd and do:

mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt /dev/sda
reboot
bain
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  • I did what bain advised and got the error: file `/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found. grub then entered rescue mode What can I do now?? – user271850 May 07 '14 at 16:28
  • Was the grub-install successful or were there any warnings or errors? Do you have a separate /boot partition? – bain May 07 '14 at 16:33
  • Does /dev/sda5 contain the /boot/grub/i386-pc directory? It is possible that grub is doing an efi install for some reason, in which case follow @cbaoth's answer in error: file '/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found in ubuntu 13.10, substituting /dev/sda1 for your /dev/sda5. – bain May 07 '14 at 16:38
  • Thanks so far - but no success yet. - The i386-pc directory is found on the boot partition. However, this partition seems to be sort of a sub-partition. When executing gparted, it shows "/dev/sda1 (linux swap); /dev/sda2 (ntfs); /dev/sda3 (extended) and within this /dev/sda5 (ext4)". The latter is the one with the boot flag and contains the /boot/grub/i386-pc directory. - Maybe the fact of beeing a sub-partition disables the boot process to find the boot directory? – user271850 May 08 '14 at 14:40
  • @user271850 grub should work with a logical partition. Have a look at my answer on error: file '/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found, it may help. – bain May 08 '14 at 18:06
  • Got the problem fixed now - the cause was to simple to think of: During installation I had to change boot options in my BIOS to enable boot from USB device. After installing I made a mistake in resetting the BIOS, so the system tried to boot from my second HDD which could not work. Unplugging the 2nd HDD lead me to the solution! – user271850 May 09 '14 at 15:58