Need Fast Help - Restoring Grub After Fresh Windows Install

rbrownclown · 2007-06-01 14:26:05

To make a long story short, my Windows partition somehow got what I suspect is a worm. None of my virus or spyware scanners are picking it up (as is most of the worms that I've had). I think I'm going to have to reformat. Just for the heck of it, I'm going to list the symptoms my Windows partition is having to show the seriousness of the situation.

1. No matter what I set in the settings, my desktop icons arrange themselves in alphabetical order and jump around.

2. The program I use for school disappeared from the Add/Remove Programs dialog, and all shortcuts have changed to reinstall files.

I have a report due today and have to get this fixed fast. I don't feel like redoing my Arch install, though. The Windows setup clears the MBR. How do I restore Grub afterwards? Please keep this simple. I'm still fairly new.

ProzacR · 2007-06-01 15:11:22

A) Insert instaliation CD and skip everything exept grub instal.

OR

B)

wernst
How to Restore the Grub Menu after a Re-Ghosting:
1. Boot from a Live CD, like Ubuntu Live, Knoppix, Mepis, or similar.
2. Open a Terminal. Go SuperUser (that is, type "su"). Enter root passwords as necessary.
3. Type "grub" which makes a GRUB prompt appear.
4. Type "find /boot/grub/stage1". You'll get a response like "(hd0)" or in my case "(hd0,3)". Use whatever your computer spits out for the following lines.
5. Type "root (hd0,3)".
6. Type "setup (hd0,3)". This is key. Other instructions say to use "(hd0)", and that's fine if you want to write GRUB to the MBR. If you want to write it to your linux root partition, then you want the number after the comma, such as "(hd0,3)".
7. Type "quit".
8. Restart the system. Remove the bootable CD.

rbrownclown · 2007-06-01 15:20:22

ProzacR wrote:

A) Insert instaliation CD and skip everything exept grub instal.
OR
B)
wernst
How to Restore the Grub Menu after a Re-Ghosting:
1. Boot from a Live CD, like Ubuntu Live, Knoppix, Mepis, or similar.
2. Open a Terminal. Go SuperUser (that is, type "su"). Enter root passwords as necessary.
3. Type "grub" which makes a GRUB prompt appear.
4. Type "find /boot/grub/stage1". You'll get a response like "(hd0)" or in my case "(hd0,3)". Use whatever your computer spits out for the following lines.
5. Type "root (hd0,3)".
6. Type "setup (hd0,3)". This is key. Other instructions say to use "(hd0)", and that's fine if you want to write GRUB to the MBR. If you want to write it to your linux root partition, then you want the number after the comma, such as "(hd0,3)".
7. Type "quit".
8. Restart the system. Remove the bootable CD.

Thanks for the detailed reply! I think I might go the Arch CD route, as it sounds much easier.

[vEX] · 2007-06-01 16:40:36

I believe using the Arch CD will rid you of your current menu.lst file so you might want to back it up if you have made some changes to it.

rbrownclown · 2007-06-01 17:22:11

[vEX] wrote:

I believe using the Arch CD will rid you of your current menu.lst file so you might want to back it up if you have made some changes to it.

The only changes I've made to it are adding the entry for Windows, and that's already there by default (just commented out).

Thanks again.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-06-01 14:26:05

Need Fast Help - Restoring Grub After Fresh Windows Install

#2 2007-06-01 15:11:22

Re: Need Fast Help - Restoring Grub After Fresh Windows Install

#3 2007-06-01 15:20:22

Re: Need Fast Help - Restoring Grub After Fresh Windows Install

#4 2007-06-01 16:40:36

Re: Need Fast Help - Restoring Grub After Fresh Windows Install

#5 2007-06-01 17:22:11

Re: Need Fast Help - Restoring Grub After Fresh Windows Install

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