Boot-Repair is a visual Graphical User interface/GUI program which you can download and install from the internet via the Ubuntu Linux Terminal Program from a Ubuntu 10.04 or newer LiveCD. It is a lot more easier to use then using the terminal command prompt to re-install Grub, so you can boot into Ubuntu again when Windows install or re-install on a dual boot computer overwrites Grub with the Master File Table/MFT, or when Grub got corrupt because of improper shutdown, a drive partitioning program which corruptedor deleted grub after re-sizing or moving your partition, and other hard drive problems which will cause you to not be able to boot into Windows or Ubuntu in some cases.
After reinstalling Grub with the Grub boot-repair program you now have the option to boot into Ubuntu, memtest, Ubuntu recovery, and your Windows operating systems again.
1. Start your computer from the Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10, or 11.04 live CD by leaving your Ubuntu liveCD in the CD-Rom drive during computer start up. You may need to move your CD-Rom to the top of the boot order list in your BIOS or CMOS. Many Newer computers have a start up device selector which you can use during boot to tell your computer to boot from a CD, USB flash drive, or your hard drive. All you have to do is press the startup manager key like ESC (The key is listed on the first screen right after you turn on your computer) to start the start up device manager.
When Ubuntu has loaded, Pick Try Ubuntu, and wait for Ubuntu to load into the desktop.
2. Open a Terminal command prompt which you can find in the Programs menu on the top of the screen then Accessories sub menu where you can find terminal.
3. In Terminal, type in these commands in order
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair
Note: The Boot Loader PPA packages are available for Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10 and 11.04, 11.10 and 12.04
3. Boot repair is found at the System Menu’s Administration Submenu where you can launch Boot-Repair from the menu.
or search boot-repair in Ubuntu 11.04 applications search box to start the program.
4.Click the Yes button when you see a pop-up for Repair of the computer boot pop-up Windows.
5. On the Last Confirmation Window, Click the Apply button.
6. Wait a few seconds for Grub to rebuild your Grub bootloader.
7.Click the OK button, and restart your computer.
8. Now Grub should be reinstalled on your hard drive.
I wish the Boot-Repair program was installed in the Ubuntu 11.04 LiveCD by default since I think it would make it a lot easier for people to reinstall Grub when Windows or a drive corruption messed up Grub where it is missing, so you can’t boot into Ubuntu or Windows in some cases.
For the Most up to date version of Boot Repair visit help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
This is a really good read for me, Must admit that you are one of the best bloggers I ever saw.Thanks for posting this informative article.
What’s the size of the whole utility when downloading and installing through terminal??.
Hi Nikhil, the size is very small since it only took me a few seconds to download Boot-Repair from the Ubuntu servers. Plus, it won’t be installed on your actual Ubuntu install after you use it since you’ll be using it from a Ubuntu 10.04 or higher LiveCD which gets rid of non-bundled software when you restart or shutdown your computer.
Hi there
Great instructions. I was unable to load the Startup-Manager (for Ubuntu 10.10) using the command line, but through Ubuntu Software Center.
Remaining problem is that it doesn’t load from the menu.
I think in my case Grub itself has been corrupted, as I can see both Windows 7 filesystems, and booting from Ubuntu 10.10 Live CD its filesystems (/ and swap).
Do you have any other suggestions?
Thank you
Milan
Hi Milan, I’m not too sure how to fix your problem since I never encounter your problem since my problem is more related to Windows overwriting the GRUB manager after reinstalling Windows, and using the boot-repair program from the Ubuntu 11.04 live CD. I think you can try different versions of the liveCD for Ubuntu like 10.04, 11.04, and 11.10 maybe it is a bug with your version of Ubuntu 10.10.
Try going to http://ubuntuforums.org/ , and searching for a solution to your problem, or joining the forum to post about your GRUB problem.
THANKS for this article.
One point to update please: the package to install is now “boot-repair”, not “boot-repair-ubuntu”.
Keep up the good job !
Thanks for the update, Yann, I like that Ubuntu update the new name. I make changes to my article for the new name.
I needed to add a sudo at the beggining of the second command, I don’t know if it was just me… anyway, this was a really helpful post, thanks!!
I think you need to add sudo on older, or newer versions of Ubuntu, or if you are using a regular user acount.