cannot get past "error: no such partition grub rescue"_
 

Hi i am very much a linux mint12 n00b and this is my first post, i have tried to use "Click here to find Similar Threads" but it does not seem to work!
Although i am sure this has been covered before,so please bear with me
I have managed to delete the partition for Linux mint 12 hoping to re-install as the first installation did not install properly! now i cannot get past the black screen with "error: no such partition> grub rescue>_"
I don't have a WinXP disk as pc came with it already installed, i have recovery disks i made when i first got the computer and the Linux 12 live disk, and i cannot get "safe mode" as none of these can work past the above mentioned page
I presume i need to type a command on this page, to maybe get the partition back, or is that to simple?
I hope the answer is not too complicated as i have said i am very much a n00b
Regards Max........

You can't fix this from that grub error screen - you need one of your CDs/USBs. Best to just do the install again.
If you managed to boot the Mint installer (USB or CD ?), that would seem to indicate you have the devices in the correct order to allow you to reboot it now.
You need to get into the BIOS to check. Watch the screen closely when you power-on - usually there is a message under the "splash" screen indicating which key to hit to enter "Setup" - i.e. the BIOS. Might be F2, F9, F11, Delete ... - depends on vendor.
Once in the BIOS, follow the prompts - again every one is different. You need to check the boot sequence to ensure the USB and/or CD is above the hard disk. Change it (in need), save it, and reboot with the removable device in place and see how you go.

Check these instructions https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...ng_Preparation

It's Ubuntu documentation but it's not Ubuntu specific I used it when Grub failed after an Arch install.

If the commands listed in the troubleshooting preperation return the expected results you should be ok. Otherwise you'll probably just need to reinstall Linux Mint.

syg00> thanks for your prompt reply firstly i cannot do the install again as loading mint12 cd does nothing, error screen comes up! under BIOS General Help options (F1) are = move, select, value, exit,optimized defaults F5,save F10,in that order none of which work,
under the boot menu (escape)there are= floppy,move, select, value, exit, optimized defaults F5, save F10, again none of these work
I am not bothered about saving anything this is a second pc and already have saved on a separate hd appreciate the hint though!
Somehow i must get past the grub error screen ie get the partition back!!
Regards Max......

zippy thanks for your reply to my problem, the site you listed seems to cover every angle and problem, most of it over my head! the main problem i have,is i have deleted the linux partition with view to re-install linux mint12 this partition needs replacing which is leaving me stuck on "error:no such partition> grub rescue" page i think drastic action needs to be done somehow, like an image re-install that can over ride this page which would be great!!the trouble with xp is you cannot legally download a formatting and re-installation disk (presuming you have all the licensing keys etc.) as you can with win7
Thanks again for your reply regards Max........

Does this mean you can take the troublesome hard-disk out, and connect it to another machine ?.
If so we can give you a command to clear that grub error (using Linux, or a liveCD), but you'll have to re-install Mint again (after re-installing the disk in the original machine).

sorry i should have made that a bit clearer it is a external hd that you plug into a usb socket not the internal type already mounted, sorry for misleading you, but could i load the live linux mint into this usb hard drive and take it from there, do you think that is possible? maybe worth a try, but i do not want to finish up with mint on my win7 os ie. dual boot in another partition!
Max......

To clarify things, your computer has xp installed on an internal drive.
You installed Linux Mint on an external USB drive.
You then deleted the Linux Mint partition.
You cannot boot xp.
Obviously can't boot Mint.
Yes or no to each of the above.
You are now seeming to say that you can't boot from the CD although you apparently managed to do that previously if you somehow installed Mint. You should have some options in the BIOS under a boot tab which will allow you to set boot priority. How did you do this before? Install it from another computer?
If you deleted the Mint partition, you obviously won't be able to boot it since most of the required boot files were on that partition. There should be no reason why you can't boot xp if it was on an internal drive unless you installed the Mint bootloader to the master boot record of the internal drive. During the installation of Mint, you would have had an option "device for bootloader installation". Do you know what you selected here. Which option did you select prior to that for the installation: use entire disk, something else, install alongside.

The error you report is grub trying to boot from the hard drive (which one??) and not finding the boot files.

No i am sorry i do not know what bootloader installation i used i just went through the prompts as they came up, and i have never had to boot from the cd, linux mint was installed on the internal drive as a dual boot with xp, it did not install correctly (i could not use it unless i booted into the generic option) so i uninstalled the partition hoping to re-install linux mint12 from the live cd i had made on my other pc
I was just querying if i could download mint to an external drive whether this would over ride the the troublesome grub error message i keep getting, as at the moment i cannot boot into anything at all, hope this clarifies the problem a little better
Max.....

The default with the Mint as well as almost any other operating system installation, is to install the bootloader to the master boot record. If you installed Mint on the internal drive with xp, you almost certainly installed Grub to the mbr of the internal hard drive with xp. When you were at the "Installation Type" screen which showed your partitions, you would see a tab at the bottom: device for bootloader installation" and if you click the down arrow on the right of the tab, you will see other options.

So who did that? Did someone else install it for you or how did you get Mint on the drive with xp if you didn't install from a CD? Did you use unetbootin or some similar program?

What happened when you tried? Did you get error messages? warnings? black screen? blinking cursor? something else?

Downloading Mint won't in itself solve anything. You will have to install Mint or some other distribution somewhere, either on the internal where you had it or on an external. If you put it on an external device and put the bootloader on the master boot record of the external, you will need the external attached to boot xp after updating Grub.

Why don't you just install Mint again, either where you had it or to the external since you have the CD?
Do you have anything on the external now? other OS? data?
What exactly are your intentions? What would you like to do? Dual boot? on the same drive? separate drives?

Thanks for your answers to my badly explained problem as a n00b maybe i don't understand certain expressions when you say boot i am presuming you mean to actually start the pc after turning power on i have never done this with my live mint cd i simply loaded mint cd with xp running and did the download, The live mint cd i am referring to is one i burned from the linux site, i have since burned another one!
When i insert mint cd nothing happens, which i would presume would happen if i loaded mint onto a seperate hard drive and plugged in to a usb
What my intentions were as already stated was to download mint again, the problem with the first download was it would come up with the mint12 screen with the menu box in the centre there was no bar at the top with the squigly thing in the top left that you clicked on and a drop menu would allow to access for instance firefox etc. if i clicked on centre menu it would come up half screen with no option to expand or to close, the view tools view file etc bar, would show a drop down menue as long as i kept the curser on them the moment i tried to access anything in the drop menu it would vanish once opened i could not close anything and would have to power of!
My intention now would be to wipe the hard drive of everything and re install mint12, as i believe xp is on its last legs and i got sick of downloading a mile of security updated every time it started
I am sorry to be so long winded but i am trying to explain everything i can, albeit badly!
Max........

PS On my external HD there is only backup data pics etc. it is less than half full there is no mint at the moment

If I am understanding you correctly, that won't work. You download the Live/Install CD, do the md5 checksum, you burn it as an image to a CD/DVD, you put the Live/Install CD/DVD in the Drive, you reboot/restart your computer with the computer BIOS set to boot from the CD. xp should not be involved anywhere in the process. An md5checksum is a good idea. The link below has an example of checking the md5sum to verify the download. I'd do that before I did anything else. Did you download from the Mint site?

http://linux.byexamples.com/archives...ecksum-how-to/

Not sure what you are talking about here. Were you trying to use the mint4win program to install Mint as a program within xp? If you boot with your Mint CD in the drive, you should boot to a graphical Desktop which has an Install Mint icon and double-clicking that would start the installation. I can't remember if you have an option to Try Mint or Install Mint before that.

You could put Mint on a flash stick and install from there but you would need a functioning operating system and since you already have the CD, not much point in that. Set your BIOS to CD drive as first boot priority and boot the disk. I would suggest keeping a pen and paper handy and write down each step which works and anything that does not work. If you have problems, the more detail the easier it is to resolve.

OK I get it now. To fix the problem you are going to have to get the machine to boot (booting is the process that loads the operating system which is what happens when you restart the pc) from CD with either the Linux live cd or one of your windows recovery cds in the pc.

Here you need to change 'floppy' to 'cdrom' (or similar) and hit F10 to save the BIOS and then restart the pc (with the cd in the cd drive).

[QUOTE=ZippyTheSkeleton;4633966]OK I get it now. To fix the problem you are going to have to get the machine to boot (booting is the process that loads the operating system which is what happens when you restart the pc) from CD with either the Linux live cd or one of your windows recovery cds in the pc.



Here you need to change 'floppy' to 'cdrom' (or similar) and hit F10 to save the BIOS and then restart the pc (with the cd in the cd drive).

SUCCESS SUCCESS!!
Thanks to yancek,and zippy the skeleton It appears i had not altered the bios which was set for for the floppy "xp startup disk" this did not work i disabled the floppy in bios and then the mint cd started to work i set it to take over the whole disk which suits me as there was not enough space otherwise it is downloading now i will let you know how i get on
Max.......

[QUOTE=maxcorrigan;4634351] Yes everything seems to be OK plus i have learned a little about bios and boot order!!
Thanks again
Max.......