Fixing grub rescue

Question

I removed the ubuntu partition from windows and extended the volume to a existing windows partition. Earlier I had a dual boot windows and ubuntu. Now it shows me the grub rescue.

grub rescue>ls

(hd0) (hd0,msdos5) (hd0,msdos3) (hd0,msdos2) (hd0,msdos1)

I loaded a livecd of ubuntu and did boot repair. Still it is showing grub resue. And I don't have a windows cd.

After trying doing a

"ls (hd0,msdos1) /boot"

on all of partition shown by ls[1]. In each case, it shows Filesystem is unknown.

In the liveCD, I get this:

sudo fdisk -l
Device     Boot     Start        End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1            2048   31791103  31789056  15.2G 27 Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2  *     31791104   32507903    716800   350M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3        32507904  780682991 748175088 356.8G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4       780685310 1465147391 684462082 326.4G  f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5       780685312 1465143607 684458296 326.4G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

I don't have any linux partition, should I install linux? Is there anyway to fix this?

Gparted:

@Zacharee1 I tried ls (hdX,msdosX) \ boot on all partitions. All of them show Filesystem is unknown. — Abhishek Bhatia, Mar 24 '16 at 01:20
I don't see that command in the answer there. Follow the procedure exactly. — TheWanderer, Mar 24 '16 at 01:22
@Zacharee1 I can't identify the partition. Please check question again, I have edited. — Abhishek Bhatia, Mar 24 '16 at 01:29
@Zacharee1 Does it make sense to install linux from a liveCD and then try maybe? — Abhishek Bhatia, Mar 24 '16 at 01:32
Then you'll just be back with Ubuntu installed. If you remove it, you'll be back in this situation. Can you take a screenshot of what Gparted shows in the LiveCD? — TheWanderer, Mar 24 '16 at 01:34
@Zacharee1 okay. I have added a gparted screenshot. Please check. — Abhishek Bhatia, Mar 24 '16 at 01:40
@Zacharee1 To be clear, I removed the ubuntu partition from windows and extended the volume to a existing windows partition. — Abhishek Bhatia, Mar 24 '16 at 02:01
I'm not very familiar with MBR, but I think your only option is to get a Windows install medium and use its command prompt to fix boot. — TheWanderer, Mar 24 '16 at 02:03
Install EasyBCD on Windows and you can resolve your problem from there. — Arijit Chatterjee, Mar 24 '16 at 02:22
@ArijitChatterjee thanks for the suggestion! Can you provide more details. How can I do so from the grub rescue? I am not able to boot into windows. — Abhishek Bhatia, Mar 24 '16 at 02:44

Arijit Chatterjee · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-28T15:22:00.563

2

Boot on Ubuntu with Ubuntu Live DVD/USB and executesudo fdisk -l, note your hdd ID (sda in your case)

Now sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install syslinux

Finally sudo dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda

Exit and you can now reboot on Windows. Hope it helps, thanks

edited Mar 28 '16 at 15:22

answered Mar 24 '16 at 03:13

Arijit Chatterjee

1,153

Thanks for answer! But I am getting this error while running it : ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda
dd: failed to open ‘/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin’: No such file or directory – Abhishek Bhatia Mar 24 '16 at 03:37
Possibly a change in mbr location, try /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/mbr.bin – Arijit Chatterjee Mar 24 '16 at 03:49
Thanks so much! That works! If possible please provide some explanation. I have limited to no knowledge about mbr. – Abhishek Bhatia Mar 24 '16 at 04:04
Dear Abhishek, I suggest you to read more on Google about it, as I am not an expert too. Regards – Arijit Chatterjee Mar 24 '16 at 04:09

Fixing grub rescue

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