Posting this here because I'm not sure exactly where else it fits. It was also a huge newbie mistake on my part.

I recently bought a new laptop which came with Windows 8 64 bit (Asus K55N). I wanted to dual boot with Arch Linux. So I made 2 partitions, one in EXT4(sda7) and another in FAT32 (sda8). I did this while following the their wiki page on using the Windows Boot Manager to dual boot with Arch here https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...le_Hard_Drives

I ran through nearly the entire process listed in the Arch Beginner's guide when I got to installing GRUB.

First Mistake: As opposed to what the above link states, I installed grub on my MBR partition(sda1) and not my boot partition (sda7).

At this point I reboot and Arch boots up fine from GRUB. So I reboot to check Windows and it isn't happy. It says the MBR is corrupted.

So I start looking for specific Linux instructions for my laptop model. I found this little link http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2057519(for Ubuntu, but I still felt it applied in this case)

And followed this post using a linux live CD (The Second Mistake):


I realize this was extremely stupid given that 1. I really don't understand MBR/GPT and 2.This didn't really fit my problem.

After reboot at this point GRUB wasn't happy, it booted straight into GRUB rescue mode, I tried some commands but didn't really get anywhere with that. I loaded up the Ubuntu Live CD and scoured my known resources for help. First off, GParted doesn't show any partitions (where initially there were 8)

fdisk returns the error
fixparts returns
gdisk (GPT fdisk)i option returns:
Here is a link for my Boot Info Script output: http://paste.ubuntu.com/5599252/

I felt that this would be more appropriate here than in the Arch forum since it isn't necessarily an Arch issue, rather it's a Newbie issue. Since it's a new laptop I have no important data on it and don't mind formatting and starting from scratch, but I'm curious to see if there is a way out without having to do that. Thanks for your help and any advice for similar future situations is appreciated!

First, the option you chose is not the best one. It's far simpler to boot Windows from Linux than the other way around.

Secondly, if you're really a beginner, you don't want Arch: it's intended for experienced users. I've used computers for over 30 years and seen 102 distributions, but the first time I installed Arch it took me all day, and the second time I lost my internet connection and never got it back.

Get Mint or PCLinuxOS. Create 3 Linux partitions: / /home swap. Put Grub on the MBR. And all will be well.

Boot from the Arch live CD and get connected to the internet, mount your arch partition and gain full rights to it by using the chroot command.
Re install GRUB to the sda partition, not to the sda1.
then reboot.

Look steps by steps to this guide before you do anything http://lifehacker.com/5680453/build-...in-the-process

Check this thread out too http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...al-4175458947/

Good luck to you

Nope and nope.

This is a Win8 box - gpt and probably M$ofts secure boot.

Seems like the OP has the experience level for Arch - being a bit better at actually reading the doco would be a decided benefit. Having trashed the boot-loader, and then converted the gpt partition table to MBR mode I would consider this an "educational exercise".
Try testdisk on it just to see if it works (maybe the 6.14 beta).

Then blow the lot away and re-install from scratch.