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I installed an partition image (Ubuntu 14.04) from another computer to my computer (previously Ubuntu 12.04) using clonezilla. The system partition on the other computer was sda1 and on my computer its sda4 (I have a multiboot system with windows, MBR, UEFI, SWAP on the other sda's). After installing the image my computer cannot boot anymore since grub cannot find the new Ubuntu 14.04 on sda4. Unfortunatly I cannot run boot-repair neither from a stick nor from within an Ubuntu live session. Does anyone know how to repair my grub?

Here is the first part of the output of the boot repair error log file:

Boot Info Script e7fc706 + Boot-Repair extra info      [Boot-Info 9Feb2015]


============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================

 => Grub2 (v1.99-2.00) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 
    386664576 of the same hard drive for core.img, but core.img can not be 
    found at this location.
 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.
 => Syslinux MBR (4.04 and higher) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc.
 => Syslinux MBR (4.04 and higher) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdh.

sda1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  Windows 7/2008: FAT32
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        /EFI/Boot/bkpbootx64.efi /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi 
                       /EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi /EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi 
                       /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bkpbootmgfw.efi 
                       /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi 
                       /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgr.efi 
                       /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootx64.efi 
                       /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/memtest.efi

sda2: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 
    Mounting failed:   mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sda3: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows 7/2008: NTFS
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  Windows 7
    Boot files:        /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda4: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 
    Operating System:  Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 
    Boot files:        /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab 
                       /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img

sda5: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       swap
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 
mcExchange
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1 Answers1

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It looks like the source computer, at least, used EFI. If the new computer also uses EFI, you should be able to use my rEFInd boot manager as an emergency boot system:

  1. Download the CD-R or USB flash drive version from the downloads page.
  2. Prepare a boot medium from said image.
  3. Boot rEFInd. This may require using your computer's built-in boot manager, typically accessed via a function key.
  4. rEFInd should show you options for all your Linux kernels. Select one and hit the Enter key.

With any luck the computer will start up. You can then either install rEFInd via the Debian package or PPA or run Boot Repair.

If you have problems, you may need to boot an emergency system and edit your /etc/fstab file for your new system, since it's possible your filesystem UUIDs have changed. The easiest thing to do in this case is to change the first entry for your / line to read /dev/sda4 rather than UUID={whatever}. With a little more effort, you can use blkid to learn the new UUID value(s) and make the appropriate substitutions.

Rod Smith
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  • I'm sorry but I wasn't able to use "rEFInd" (Did not even manage to create a bootable USB stick from it). As you said "rEFInd" is part of boot-repair I fear it would have failed also. I ended formatting the entire partition and installing the clonezilla image on sda1 (same structure as on the computer on which it was created). Maybe the image itself contained some grub or boot information which was conflicting with those on sda1. I don't know. But for the future it would still be nice to have a tutorial on how to install a clonezilla image on another partition without destroying booting / grub – mcExchange Apr 16 '15 at 14:00
  • rEFInd is not part of Boot Repair. Chances are it would have worked if you'd managed to create a suitable USB. The flash drive .zip file includes a README-flashdrive.txt file with instructions on how to do this, although they're admittedly Linux-specific. – Rod Smith Apr 18 '15 at 00:32