Ubuntu grub rescue prompt

Question

Installed WUBI on Windows and the Ubuntu installation completed. The first time I logged in to Ubuntu it updated a full set of patches and asked to reboot.

Now after reboot it is showing me the error:

no such devices found

grub rescue>

Can you share some commands I could use to recover at least Windows? It is not even asking for the Windows login at boot time.

Solution 1

Cause: Grub2 is not supposed to replace the original bootloader.

Conditions: Windows 7, Netbook, no optical disc drive, no rescue CD, repair startup not found in Windows Rescue Environment (Press F8 before Windows logo appears), failed to uninstall Grub and restore Windows bootloader

Solutions:

1. Get SuperGrubDisk to boot into the Windows partition.
2. In Windows, get Mbrfix.exe to fix the MBR (run Mbrfix /drive 0 fixmbr /win7).

Do read the instructions in the documentation.

Solution 2

It is not possible to recover Windows from there. You'll need the Windows DVD (Windows 7 DVD for example if you have Windows 7). Boot the DVD up, select Recovery. When it offers to repair it automatically, say no.

Select recovery prompt and type these commands one-by-one:
bootrec.exe /FixMbr
bootrec.exe /FixBoot

After you have done this, close the prompt with the X, and close the Windows 7 installer. Reboot, there you go.

(As a side note: Wubi is not really recommended. It's really just for playing around. As you experienced, the system may break very easily even with some updates. You should just resize your main partition with the Windows partition manager or some commerical software like Acronis Disk Director and install Ubuntu to a new partition.)

Comments

[cyrilsebastian]

yipee!! it worked...thanx a tonne.

[Apache]

True enough. It's a life-saver if you learn this or just print it out. When the sh.t hits the fan, there is no better solution.