How to change to grub bootloader from windows bootloader

Question

I have ubuntu, linux mint and windows 8 on my computer.

A few days ago my windows installation failed, so I reinstalled it on the 500GB partition.

My hard drive is 1TB. Windows is 500GB, Ubuntu is 250GB and Mint is 250GB.

Now whenever I turn on PC, it boots straoght into Windows, and does not show me the Grub menu, so I cannot boot into Ubuntu/Mint.

Is there any way to restore the Grub bootloader without having to reinstall one of the Linux OSs?

Solution

That's normal, Windows has wrote on the MBR of your disk and now, at boot time, the bios goes straight to its boot loader. To recover your installation, all you have to do is to boot on a Linux live system, chroot on your mint, and re run grub-install.

You can for example use this walkthrough : http://howtoubuntu.org/how-to-repair-restore-reinstall-grub-2-with-a-ubuntu-live-cd

Comments

[Karan]

possible duplicate of How To Get Windows To Stop Assuming Precedence Over GRUB?

[Tatsuyuki Ishi]

Maybe a solution without live cd is preferrable for him.

[techgenius101]

Well, I can do it with a live cd, but it is preferrable without

[Toine42]

I've always used the live-cd method, but if you have an alternative could share it ? Thanks !