GRUB doesn't recognize partitions on one harddisk

boot partitioning multi-boot grub wubi

7,128

Did you ever solve this? I see the question was asked 2 years ago, but anyway... You need the line insmod part_msdos somewhere in the grub.cfg file. I couldn't find it in the log you posted.

I just had a similar problem using a hdd that has a GUID Partition Table instead of an MBR; then you need the line insmod part_gpt

7,128

u149796

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

u149796 almost 2 years

I have a dualboot computer with Windows Vista (on hd0) and Ubuntu 9.10. The bootloader is GRUB and the windows bootloader lets me decide between Vista and Ubuntu-Installation (broken WuBi). But now (i don't know why that changed) I can't use start the windows-bootloader anymore. The error message is "no such device: AE1440441440122F" I tried "ls" on the grub-prompt and it gave me a list like:

(hd0) (hd1) (hd1,0) (hd1,1) (hd1,2) ... (fd0)

It recognizes all partitions of hd1 (the ubuntu-harddisk) but not of hd0(the win-disk). .. WHY?

Here is the result of the "boot info script" for the technical details:

                Boot Info Script 0.55    dated February 15th, 2010                    

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

 => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks for 
    (UUID=a7c510e3-2399-437b-ab92-fa609e48d63f)/boot/grub.
 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb

sda1: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  Windows Vista
    Boot files/dirs:   /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe 
                       /wubildr.mbr /wubildr

sda2: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   

sdb1: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       
    Boot sector type:  Unknown
    Boot sector info:  
    Mounting failed:
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sdb2: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   

sdb3: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       Bios Boot Partition
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  

sdb4: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
    Operating System:  Ubuntu 9.10
    Boot files/dirs:   /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sdb5: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       swap
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77825 cylinders, total 1250263728 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x52554d66

Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System

/dev/sda1    *          2,048   307,202,047   307,200,000   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2         307,202,048 1,250,258,943   943,056,896   7 HPFS/NTFS


Drive: sdb ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sdb: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77825 cylinders, total 1250263728 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System

/dev/sdb1                   1 1,250,263,727 1,250,263,727  ee GPT


GUID Partition Table detected.

Partition           Start           End          Size System
/dev/sdb1              34       262,177       262,144 Microsoft Windows
/dev/sdb2         262,178 1,131,253,933 1,130,991,756 Linux or Data
/dev/sdb3   1,131,253,934 1,131,255,887         1,954 Bios Boot Partition
/dev/sdb4   1,131,255,888 1,245,312,528   114,056,641 Linux or Data
/dev/sdb5   1,245,312,529 1,250,263,694     4,951,166 Linux Swap

blkid -c /dev/null: ____________________________________________________________

Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL                         

/dev/sda1        AE1440441440122F                       ntfs                                     
/dev/sda2        3AE66E4DE66E0A09                       ntfs       data                          
/dev/sdb2        5419D16119DAA4DE                       ntfs       LaufwerkD                     
/dev/sdb4        a7c510e3-2399-437b-ab92-fa609e48d63f   ext4                                     
/dev/sdb5        60a0143a-e01b-450a-bbd1-f22059e47b65   swap                                     

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev  output: ===========================

Device           Mount_Point              Type       Options

/dev/sdb4        /                        ext4       (rw,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sr0         /media/cdrom0            iso9660    (ro,nosuid,nodev,utf8,user=daniel)
/dev/sda1        /media/AE1440441440122F  fuseblk    (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions,blksize=4096)


=========================== sdb4/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s /boot/grub/grubenv ]; then
  have_grubenv=true
  load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
  saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
  save_env saved_entry
  prev_saved_entry=
  save_env prev_saved_entry
fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd1,4)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set a7c510e3-2399-437b-ab92-fa609e48d63f
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=640x480
  insmod gfxterm
  insmod vbe
  if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
    # For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
    # understand terminal_output
    terminal gfxterm
  fi
fi
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/white
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-20-generic" {
        recordfail=1
        if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
    set quiet=1
    insmod ext2
    set root=(hd1,4)
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set a7c510e3-2399-437b-ab92-fa609e48d63f
    linux   /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-20-generic root=UUID=a7c510e3-2399-437b-ab92-fa609e48d63f ro   quiet splash
    initrd  /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-20-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-20-generic (recovery mode)" {
        recordfail=1
        if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
    insmod ext2
    set root=(hd1,4)
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set a7c510e3-2399-437b-ab92-fa609e48d63f
    linux   /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-20-generic root=UUID=a7c510e3-2399-437b-ab92-fa609e48d63f ro single 
    initrd  /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-20-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic" {
        recordfail=1
        if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
    set quiet=1
    insmod ext2
    set root=(hd1,4)
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set a7c510e3-2399-437b-ab92-fa609e48d63f
    linux   /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=a7c510e3-2399-437b-ab92-fa609e48d63f ro   quiet splash
    initrd  /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic (recovery mode)" {
        recordfail=1
        if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
    insmod ext2
    set root=(hd1,4)
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set a7c510e3-2399-437b-ab92-fa609e48d63f
    linux   /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=a7c510e3-2399-437b-ab92-fa609e48d63f ro single 
    initrd  /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
    linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
    linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda1)" {
    insmod ntfs
    set root=(hd0,1)
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ae1440441440122f
    chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

=============================== sdb4/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
# / was on /dev/sdb4 during installation
UUID=a7c510e3-2399-437b-ab92-fa609e48d63f /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sdb5 during installation
UUID=60a0143a-e01b-450a-bbd1-f22059e47b65 none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/scd0       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0

=================== sdb4: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


 583.8GB: boot/grub/core.img
 583.8GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
 579.7GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
 580.0GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-20-generic
 579.7GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic
 579.8GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-20-generic
 580.0GB: initrd.img
 579.7GB: initrd.img.old
 579.8GB: vmlinuz
 579.7GB: vmlinuz.old
=========================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =======================

Unknown BootLoader  on sdb1

00000000  54 34 dc 3b 8b ff 6c fa  3e 59 3d 24 25 af 5f 9b  |T4.;..l.>Y=$%._.|
00000010  72 f8 36 3d 56 30 22 fd  c6 08 5e 39 7f dc 29 48  |r.6=V0"...^9..)H|
00000020  48 e5 24 52 77 b0 fc 64  b6 ce 48 c3 07 ce b5 81  |H.$Rw..d..H.....|
00000030  06 68 60 4f 6e fb 83 92  df 3a 54 b9 df 21 2a cd  |.h`On....:T..!*.|
00000040  1e 2f e2 49 fe cf 81 2d  52 17 1a 4e 66 b4 f3 f0  |./.I...-R..Nf...|
00000050  41 25 e3 96 26 28 fe 19  61 72 75 f8 40 a3 b7 ef  |A%..&(..aru.@...|
00000060  5f 79 dc cb 28 44 44 7c  9b 9a 7b 6c 4b 4b 60 0f  |_y..(DD|..{lKK`.|
00000070  a9 97 87 bc 85 9f db bb  d2 1a 88 9f aa 49 18 d5  |.............I..|
00000080  92 2d db 7e fe f7 8d 7a  18 c0 33 c5 bd 7a 46 07  |.-.~...z..3..zF.|
00000090  c8 27 13 66 94 49 62 9f  bc 99 56 55 25 fb 94 a9  |.'.f.Ib...VU%...|
000000a0  3f b2 a7 0a 87 d0 a4 4e  51 f1 09 02 c4 29 eb ff  |?......NQ....)..|
000000b0  26 3b 51 3e 5a 0c db ee  a6 57 a7 c3 ba a1 74 90  |&;Q>Z....W....t.|
000000c0  ee 70 08 18 cc b8 d0 22  ce 96 c7 cb 68 40 98 20  |.p....."....h@. |
000000d0  49 3d 07 ec df d1 8d cf  19 bc 42 90 70 24 01 b4  |I=........B.p$..|
000000e0  28 cf c6 50 d3 95 5a 1b  18 15 33 c7 b2 a8 95 92  |(..P..Z...3.....|
000000f0  bb 93 fe 18 2b 81 c1 6b  9c 30 f1 65 50 6a 80 3d  |....+..k.0.ePj.=|
00000100  74 37 a8 59 a6 51 8a 63  b6 d8 16 9f a9 47 2a 7c  |t7.Y.Q.c.....G*||
00000110  04 a7 fe 69 47 02 bf e9  b7 1b 7a ea 60 5c 3c 53  |...iG.....z.`\<S|
00000120  5b 10 78 dc 4d d2 a8 22  30 45 37 fb 56 06 9f 06  |[.x.M.."0E7.V...|
00000130  aa df cf 87 3a 3e cf 72  f2 e5 a6 c6 aa e2 7c 1c  |....:>.r......|.|
00000140  64 c2 fc 80 ce 02 fc 7f  0f c6 60 81 bf cd 3b 5a  |d.........`...;Z|
00000150  37 a5 38 1b 0c 1b 39 2e  d6 f6 3d a2 36 e5 87 c3  |7.8...9...=.6...|
00000160  17 b5 fd ee 33 c7 ce a3  d9 c2 57 dc ee 85 48 9d  |....3.....W...H.|
00000170  33 60 02 cd c5 83 44 44  ea b6 07 25 0a 4b a6 6e  |3`....DD...%.K.n|
00000180  fc 51 42 cd 84 0b 65 b6  19 a1 e5 b2 eb 14 0c fa  |.QB...e.........|
00000190  24 77 f5 44 6e 5d 39 dd  b6 8e cc f8 30 fe 21 46  |$w.Dn]9.....0.!F|
000001a0  9c ff 95 c6 c7 b5 0a df  54 ca d2 ac bc 64 d0 97  |........T....d..|
000001b0  94 54 d9 29 0f 91 60 20  c3 e4 53 c2 b0 e4 40 72  |.T.)..` ..S...@r|
000001c0  7e 25 bc 81 06 ad 05 46  14 a7 e6 71 6b 5c db 9c  |~%.....F...qk\..|
000001d0  0a 5e 76 23 ae 06 01 36  98 21 65 2c 90 e7 4b 1a  |.^v#...6.!e,..K.|
000001e0  2a 2d 80 a5 48 db 9e 14  e0 9f e9 aa 00 e3 77 32  |*-..H.........w2|
000001f0  0f fd 94 db 55 a6 64 46  be ae ca de da ee 89 68  |....U.dF.......h|
00000200


=======Devices which don't seem to have a corresponding hard drive==============

sdc sdd sde

RJFalconer about 14 years

What error do you get when you try to start the windows boot loader?
u149796 about 14 years

Oh... I'm sorry.. I forgot to change the language to english. I will edit this as soon as I have an opportunity.

Olaf Dietsche over 8 years

This was the hint I needed, thank you. Adding --modules=part_msdos to the grub-install call solved it for me.
Binarus almost 3 years

@OlafDietsche What a pity that you didn't put your comment as an answer; I would have upvoted it. Actually, it should be an answer, because it shows the only easy way to get that module into GRUB's configuration.
Binarus almost 3 years

@geniass Thank you very much for putting @OlafDietsche on the right track - I've upvoted your answer. However, it is not complete yet. I had a similar problem; GRUB didn't recognize the partitions on its boot disk and immediately went into rescue mode on every restart. However, insmod part_gpt did not work there; it immediately caused the same error message. That is, it was not that this module was not loaded; it obviously was that the module was not available in GRUB from the beginning on. @OlafDietsche has shown the solution.