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GRUB issue: /boot partition was deleted while installing XP

dear all,

Thanks for looking at this :D
I always seem to have GRUB issues :o

Anyway, I needed to install WinXP on my HP Dv9500t laptop, for some really annoying software which is only windows and I can't be bothered to wine it. So While installing I wrote over the /boot partition of the hard drive :( Now there is nothing in boot except for some things that I've made from other pc's. Any idea? Should I just reinstall everything? I don't really want to do that if I don't have to but I will if I must. If I do whats the easyist way to back things up? Make an iso with dd or a tar.gz? and can someone remind me of the commands ?

Thanks,

paul

Code:

root@ubuntu:/# fdisk -l 



Disk /dev/sda: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x0004c869



  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id  System

/dev/sda1  *          1        555    4458006    7  HPFS/NTFS

/dev/sda2            556      12161    93225195  83  Linux



Disk /dev/sdb: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x1248f1c6



  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id  System

/dev/sdb1              1          32      257008+  83  Linux

/dev/sdb2              33      12160    97418160    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)

/dev/sdb5              33        542    4096543+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

/dev/sdb6            543      12160    93321553+  7  HPFS/NTFS





root@ubuntu:/# mkdir /media/ubuntu

root@ubuntu:/# mount /dev/sda2 /media/ubuntu/

root@ubuntu:/# mount /dev/sdb1 /media/ubuntu/boot

root@ubuntu:/# mount --bind /dev/ /media/ubuntu/dev/

root@ubuntu:/# mount --bind /proc /media/ubuntu/proc

root@ubuntu:/# umount /dev/sdc1

root@ubuntu:/# mount /dev/sdc1 /media/ubuntu/local

root@ubuntu:/# chroot /media/ubuntu/

root@ubuntu:/# ls boot/

grub  lost+found

root@ubuntu:/# ls boot/grub/

default  device.map  menu.lst  menu.lst~

grub-install /dev/sda

/dev/sda does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.

grub-install --recheck /dev/sda2

Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.

Could not find device for /boot: Not found or not a block device.

grub-install /dev/sda

Could not find device for /boot: Not found or not a block device.

Your profile says that you use Ubuntu. I believe that Ubuntu has a system repair option in the live CD installer.

windows overwrites mbr. You just need to re-install Grub to the mbr of the first drive. If you can't boot from the hardrive use a Live CD, in a terminal type "grub" to get the grub prompt (grub>), then enter:

geometry (hd0)
geometry (hd1)
find /sbin/init
find /boot/vmlinuz

so you know where the files you need are and then do the following:
root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0)
quit

This assumes your Linux distro in on sda2, if it's on sdb1, change the root entry to (hd1,0).

Sorry forgot to say that. Yes we're using Ubuntu Hardy and no I didn't see the repair option on the live disc. So I booted up the live disc and mounted the hard drives (2 sata HDD) as in my first post. Then I did

Code:

root@ubuntu:/boot# ls -lhR

.:

total 13K

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1.0K 2008-08-05 14:53 grub

drwx------ 2 root root  12K 2008-08-04 14:54 lost+found



./grub:

total 10K

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  191 2008-08-04 15:54 default

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  60 2008-08-05 14:53 device.map

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3.7K 2008-08-05 14:52 menu.lst

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3.7K 2008-08-05 14:52 menu.lst~



./lost+found:

total 0

this is what I'm saying I wrote over the boot partition. I had to totally remake it. However, i don't have a stage1 or a vmlinuz file anymore because Win XP formatted the boot partition and used it as C:/
Hence when I do do

Code:

root@ubuntu:/boot# grub

Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.



      [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.  For

        the  first  word,  TAB  lists  possible  command

        completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the possible

        completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> geometry (hd0)

geometry (hd1)

find /sbin/init

find /boot/vmlinuzgeometry (hd0)

drive 0x80: C/H/S = 12161/255/63, The number of sectors = 195371568, /dev/sda

  Partition num: 0,  Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7

  Partition num: 1,  Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> geometry (hd1)

drive 0x81: C/H/S = 12161/255/63, The number of sectors = 195371568, /dev/sdb

  Partition num: 0,  Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

  Partition num: 4,  Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82

  Partition num: 5,  Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7

grub> find /sbin/init

 (hd0,1)

grub> root (hd0,1)

root (hd0,1)

grub> setup (hd0)

setup (hd0)

 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no

 Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... no



Error 15: File not found

grub>

I get File not found because it's not there. Any way to make it?

So, you were booting out of a separate /boot partition? And it is now gone? (it is certainly not there...). Does that mean your kernel is missing too?

In this event, you will either need to recreate it and put the right stuff in it, or you need to put a /boot directory on your / partition. You should be able to get what you need off of a live CD that matches your distro. This is probably going to mess up your package manager though, but you can fix that.

Just fire up the live CD, remount the partition (sda2, it looks like) that is your system parttion as writable, then copy /boot from the live CD onto it.

Then, install grub.

I copied over what the live CD had and this is what I got. I probably could mess around and get it all working but with the different kernel version I can't be bothered. My partitions are kind of nasty anyway so fresh install here we come :D

just FYI I did
root@ubuntu:/# tar cvf /homeDIR_BK.tar /home/*******/
which worked quite nicely :D but it was too big for gzip otherwise I would do
root@ubuntu:/# tar cvf - /home/********/ | gzip > /homeDIR_BK.tar.gz

here is what the live CD gave and my different kerenl images so ....yea

Code:

root@ubuntu:/# ls boot/

abi-2.6.24-16-generic            lost+found

config-2.6.24-16-generic          memtest86+.bin

grub                              System.map-2.6.24-16-generic

initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic.bak  vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic

root@ubuntu:/# 

root@ubuntu:/# ls -lh /

total 24G

drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K 2008-08-03 12:51 bin

drwxr-xr-x  4 root root 1.0K 2008-08-05 16:51 boot

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  11 2008-06-29 11:31 cdrom -> media/cdrom

drwxr-xr-x  12 root root  15K 2008-08-05 06:47 dev

drwxr-xr-x 146 root root  12K 2008-08-05 16:15 etc

drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4.0K 2008-08-05 17:52 home

-rw-r--r--  1 root root  24G 2008-08-05 18:06 homeDIR_BK.tar

drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K 2008-04-22 11:02 initrd

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  33 2008-06-29 20:22 initrd.img -> boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  33 2008-06-29 11:40 initrd.img.old -> boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

........

........

........

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  30 2008-06-29 20:22 vmlinuz -> boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  30 2008-06-29 11:40 vmlinuz.old -> boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic

root@ubuntu:/#