Problem with GRUB: partition not found. Grub Rescue??

genoboss · 12-22-2010, 10:07 PM

iight, so i installed Linux Mint 10 and i deleted my windows partition by accident, and it became unallocated space. so i did a testdisk and i figured i had restored the partition because the table looked different then it was before.

I rebooted my pc and it says partition not found and get a grub rescue but nothing i type works.
So i cannot get into windows or linux. I have Linux mint 10 on a flash drive

So when i booted into that and went into terminal i typed sudo fdisk -l and saw sda1 and sda2 (which is suppose to be my windows partition)

i was then told to type find /grub/stage1 but i get the error 15: file not found

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5a23c748

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        1828    14680064    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2   *        1828       38914   297889792    7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 4009 MB, 4009230336 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 15294 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *           1       15294     3915248    b  W95 FAT32

http://i56.tinypic.com/jgp3eo.png

genoboss · 12-22-2010, 11:09 PM

.......bump

decrepit · 12-23-2010, 07:06 AM

I'm no expert but that looks very strange. sda2 is shown as the boot partition, but it's a windows filesystem?
It's my understanding that windows wants to be on the first partition?

Can you see what's actually on Sda2, if it's linux, grub should be in the "boot" folder.

genoboss · 12-23-2010, 07:20 AM

I dont know whats on sda2. It use to be my winows but when i tried to install Linux i deleted it by accident and it became unallocated space. then i used testdisk to try and recover it. this is when i got the grub error

genoboss · 12-23-2010, 07:35 AM

Can anybody suggest anything, i dont know what else to do

ronlau9 · 12-23-2010, 03:12 PM

What does testdisk exactly do after you use it ?
Bring it back to the situation before you install mint ?
In the last case mint is deleted .
So in my opinion you have two choices first instal mint again second restore windows MBR so can boot windows again
And than make you're mind if like to use mint or not

genoboss · 12-23-2010, 04:01 PM

if i install mint again. how would i restore my windows mbr. because i dont want to lose my windows data.
testdisk restored the partition table to the way it was. i guess this is why i got the grub error.

i pretty much deleted windows partition and it was unallocated space

Larry Webb · 12-23-2010, 05:32 PM

If you let Mint do a default installation it should not have deleted any Windows files. It will take up half or so of your hd and if you delete Mint then that partition would be unallocated. The easy way to restore your windows mbr is a windows disc. I would do like ronlau9 advised and reinstall ubuntu. It should give you an option to boot windows on computer restart.

tommcd · 12-23-2010, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by genoboss

if i install mint again. how would i restore my windows mbr. because i dont want to lose my windows data.
testdisk restored the partition table to the way it was. i guess this is why i got the grub error.
i pretty much deleted windows partition and it was unallocated space

If all else fails, you should be able to recover any data you had on your Windows partition with a
System Rescue CD: http://sysresccd.org/Main_Page

EDDY1 · 12-24-2010, 02:12 AM

What machine?
Do you know your system restore buttons?
You still have PQservice
use system restore buttons.
As far as needing sys restore cd's they're not necessary.

EDDY1 · 12-24-2010, 02:49 PM

Quote:

if i install mint again. how would i restore my windows mbr. because i dont want to lose my windows data.
testdisk restored the partition table to the way it was. i guess this is why i got the grub error.

Using testdisk you have to perform extended scan, then reload those partitions.
When I used it I was lost after a few attempts with no commits I noticed after deep scan that,
to the left of partions there is a P on the 1 partition that was still on system, there is a D beside the deleted partitions.
You scan scroll down on each of these deleted partitions and press P to list files for viewing, q takes you back to the list of partitions.

Once you have found the partitions that contain your information go back to list of partitions and toggle(left or righ arrow)
from D to P. P reloads that partition.

genoboss · 12-24-2010, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDDY1

What machine?
Do you know your system restore buttons?
You still have PQservice
use system restore buttons.
As far as needing sys restore cd's they're not necessary.

What does PQservice do?

genoboss · 12-24-2010, 04:55 PM

Right now im trying to resize my sda2 partition so i can reinstall ubuntu but its not letting me change the bar..

EDDY1 · 12-24-2010, 05:05 PM

PQService holds original installation information it has an image of the original os.
If you make an empty ntfs on sda2 and use sys restore keys at boot it'll reinstall os.
Returns to factory specs

Downside is you lose all information from previous install.

EDDY1 · 12-24-2010, 07:39 PM

This is what mine has in PQService.