Hi,

i've 2 OS installed in my desktop pc: win xp and linux debian etch4.0, it worked witout troubles during more than 3 years , but these days i've got this msg:

"no boot sector found on your system , please reboot your computer"

i use supergrubdisk to boot windows , but i can't boot linux partition in any way using this disc -because when i tried to boot it it stopped" , i 've verified that it exixts with knoppix but my question is:

How to repair grub menu using one of these 2 cds without formatting my data or uninstalling one of the 2 systems because i need them all with my data.

please help me.

thanks in advance.

well your MBR has been written over use knopix or puppy linux to install grub back on the MBR. before you do this back up your menu.1st then install grub from puppy
then put your menu.1st. if you have an image in /boot/grub like most systems. looks like this for my sda drive then as root Or just reinstall it from puppy or knopix

Thanks Drakeo, I too will use your advice. I am big Puppy fan. I multi-boot
too, and have mastered menu.lst edit to get to Puppy frugal installs from
older Ubuntu etc. but now stuck with Grub2. I got the need to edit 40_custom, activate, and "sudo grub-update" but I need to see an example of the syntax for puppy within 40_custom. Content of 40_custom is not showing in grub at start-up. Has anyone done this and written a little
step-by-step? I think best solution to multi-boot is a separate boot partition, 300 Mb, so independent of other linux. On this pc I have XP
and Ubuntu, Mint and Omega, along with 4 frugal puppies. Old grub.
I hesitate to go to grub2 until I grasp the method. Thanks and best wishes,
ZZRON357

I learned everything on this tutorial about dealing with grub2. as like you ubuntu wants to control the computer. I have super grub2 boot disk it will load ext4 file systems. Once you learn how to use the CLI in it you will be ok.
I learned then uninstalled it did not care for grub2. Hard to beieve it was set up for multiple systems. What they mean is multiple Ubuntu systems.

Here is another good tutorial,especially the Live CD install

grub2

Hi,

Thanks every body for these intersting responses , and sorry for the delay.

So i've DVD of knoppix i'll boot from it to rewrite the MBR corretctly , i'm now trying to do this

i'll send results and steps after that.

Thanks .

Hello,

i've tried knoppix but it failed so: i've find these results:

winxp installed on(hd0,0)

linux debian (hd0,1)

So, i want to be sure if : restoring backup of boot of windows partition earses my data or not -using super grub disc-

Thanks.

tripleh:

Tried what with Knoppix?
Are you still able to boot xp?
Were you previously booting both with Debian Grub?
Using your Knoppix disk, are you able to view folders/files on Debian partition?
You should have Grub files in your Debian /boot directory. Installing Grub is pretty simple, the problem is getting it to the correct partition. From your post, it should be (hd0,1). Did you use the Knoppix DVD to get to the Grub prompt to verify Debian is on (hd0,1)? If you are sure Debian /boot is on (hd0,1), you can reinstall Grub from a terminal as root user at grub prompt:

root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0)
quit

I'm not sure what the above means?? Are you referring to Drakeos suggestion above?

hello,

1] i've tried :

-opening a root shell:
-type: grub
-root(hd0,0) at this step i've got:

error 27: unrcognized command. -here i didn't understand.

2]-after burning 90% of my data on a dvd+rw with k3b , now i can't boot my win xp partition it start booting and interrupt booting , it reboots automatickly .?

3]-Were you previously booting both with Debian Grub?

Yes, i did it for 3 years and a half.

4]using knoppix cd : yes i can view all my folders/files on the 2 partitions : hda1 and hda2 (win xp, linux debian)

5]well , this is my :/boot/grub/menu.lst : please do a review on it and tell me what to do exactly : either i use knoppix or debian dvd prompt.

6] i mean if i use super grub disc : there is option called: "restore backup of boot of windows partition".

with the post of Draeko i didn't use puppy , also i'm so afraid to lost my files doing a mistake , i've searched a lot of documents about this trouble .

Thanks.

Attached Files

menu.pdf (8.5 KB, 5 views)

If you download ubuntu-live-cd desktop version , you can just boot system and select "try ubuntu" and have gui to both window and debian system.
Once in open examples folder and you can do anything you need to.
To open terminal in file manager go to /usr/share/applications double click on terminal.

I'm also surprised that on your attachment it shows debian at hda2
With windows installed first wouldn't it take hda1 & hda2, making debian hda3?

Hiren's bootcd has miniwinsxp and mini linux.

Did you do the above from a grub prompt? (grub>)
I assume you did not put the dash (-) in front of the command? If you typed it the way it is printed above, it won't work. You need a space between the word root and the (hd0,) like this: root (hd0,0) That's why you got the "unrecognized command error". You indicated above that you thought your Debian was on (hd0,1)? You need to get the right partition for it to work.

Where??

Try from terminal using the knoppix live cd

fdisk -l and post the results

Hi,

thanks for Yancek, larry web, and eddy1 for their responses ;

So : Yes i did from grub prompt and without (-) but for root(hd0,0) i didn't left space!

now this kis results of root commands:

grub>root (hd0,0)

this gives: file system type Unkown , partition type 0x7

grub> root (hd0,1)

this command gives: file system type ext2fs , partition type 0x83

but i think that my file system is ext3 when i had installed debian the first time?

my menu.lst is joined as an attachement such as a pdf file : it is at the end of my post.


now: for larry web :

fdisk -l : gives unrecognized command error 27 (and with tabulation does not exist : i have:

find and fstest just for commands starting with f) ???

knoppix version: 5.3

grub version: 0.97999.

Thanks.