I've done my searching and now I want to ask before I potentially overwrite something I don't want to and create even more headache. I know this isn't Windows support, so I will be happy if someone answers, but I am not expecting it. I keep Windows around to print coupons and play lego games... that's all it's good for.

Item #1
I had Windows 8 and Mint 14 dual booting. Had a hardware issue, sent it back to Lenovo for repair, it came back with no grub. No data was lost on either OS partitions. I was having problems installing grub and in my haste for an answer and panicking about messing other things up (item 2 below), I decided to install Mint 16 on an empty partition, allowing it to install grub. This worked, I can now boot Mint 14 or 16. As I understand it now though, if I format the Mint 16 partition, I will lose grub? Do I need to boot into Mint 14, run "sudo grub-update" and "sudo grub-install /dev/sda"? I know sda is the correct drive and hold grub from my Mint 16 install.

Item #2
I destroyed the Windows bootloader. Grub has an option to boot Windows but it doesn't work (didn't work before sending it in either). However, I used to be able to change the boot device (sdb) and boot Windows; but not now. So, is there a way to get Windows to boot from Grub without any Windows repair disk? I don't know what to provide as far as logs or reports, so if any information is needed to answer this, let me know.

Lenovo laptop
24GB SSD (sda; one parition holding Mint 14)
750GB HDD (sdb; several partitions; one holds Windows, Lenovo recovery, another recovery, Mint 16)
x64 OS

Current Mint bootable bios: Secure boot disabled, UEFI boot mode (i.e. not legacy)

:caveat: I have never looked at Win8 - deliberately avoided it:/caveat:

Yes, if you delete the petra partition, you'll loose grub - do as you posted (btw it might be update-grub).
For Win8 - have a look here - it has a link to a page where you can download a Win8 90-day evaluation you might be able to use for recovery. Looks like the bcd is similar to Win7.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for the reply. Like I said, Windows is only good for printing coupons and gaming (just coupons on the laptop). I am fairly new to linux and must use Windows for my profession so I am familiar with all versions of Windows since NT. Windows 8 is the WORST. If I could figure out how to install coupons.com print installer in Wine, then I would totally ditch Windows on my laptop.

You are also correct on "update-grub". Just thinking ahead if my Mint 14 grub is corrupted or if my recovery disc for Windows breaks grub again, how do I get to the grub command line from the live image? When I was messing with it before installing Mint 16, I tried to "fix" grub by using boot-recovery from a live image. It didn't work completely, but it did take me to grub command line where I was able to boot into Mint 14 via "linux (hd0,gpt1)/boot/...." + "initrd (hd0,gpt1)/...." + "boot". This seems easier and more familiar to me if I break grub again then to boot the live image and mount and link things. So, can I get to the grub command prompt from a live image? Then I would be right back to where I am right now... booting into a version of linux that currently doesn't contain the bootable grub.cfg, but with strokes of a few keys can be installed via the grub-install command.

Have you tried "Boot-Repair"?

Win8 recovery will trash grub again. If you boot the Mint install liveCD you can just interrupt the boot when it says "booting in x seconds". I use the arrow keys. You will see an option to "boot from local drive" - select that. So long as you only have one distro installed (say Mint 14), it should chroot into it for you. Then you can do the grub-install, update-grub again. Should work anytime.

BTW I reckon it's about time you upgraded that mint - and make a recovery disk immediately if you get Win8 working again.