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Idea #2796: Easy way to make booting work again after Windows has been reinstalled
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Written by arito the 3 Mar 08 at 17:29.
Category: System.
Related project:
Nothing/Others.
Status: New
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Rationale
I don't know how this should be done technically, but there is a need for an easy way to restore the master boot record in a dual boot system after Windows has been reinstalled. There are a huge amount of dual boot installations in use, and when Windows breaks, people usually just reinstall it. After reinstallation they are not able to boot back into their system, and have no idea what's wrong. Currently, fixing the problem is not always easy even for experienced users. For those with little computer/Linux experience, it's next to impossible (especially when they can't use the computer to find information).
Perhaps the Live CD could be used as a tool for this. One of the boot menu items might be something like "restore the missing boot menu", or something that people would understand. When the user would select this item, he would be explained what it's for and what it's not for. Then the user would choose "restore", some magic would happen and the mbr would be restored. Another way to arrange this would be through the Live CD desktop, where there might be a general item like "fix a problem", and one of the options would be to repair the boot record.
Tags:
(none)
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324
votes
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369
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45
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Sai
wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 19:50
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Isn't it possible to package a Ubuntu-ized version of GRUB4WIN with the live CD, just like Gimp, ClamAv that are bundled with it?
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muecker
wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 20:22
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Try Super Grub Disk: http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org/
I think it would be a great idea to add this to the Live CD since most people who have Ubuntu installed have at least one version of that CD.
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I don't run into this problem because I have never re-installed Windows after Ubuntu was installed, but I do agree that this is something that should be done... just a simple addition to the LiveCD menu.
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JohnyN
wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 20:28
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I think it's a very good idea :-)
Similary this possibility has a Mandriva Linux 2008 distribution a it works great. It would be very comfortable to simply restore mbr after reinstalling Windows.
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I agree that 1.5meg on the Ubuntu CD could be devoted to the Super Grub Disk without too much trouble.
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I once had exactly the problem described land on my hard drive. It is a very off-putting scenario and poor PR for Ubuntu. And if its a 1.5 meg increase- well, it is a good trade and a thumbs up for the dual booters out there.
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lattera
wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 21:40
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This has happened to me before. What I did was boot into the LiveCD, mount my Ubuntu partition, chroot into it, and run grub. I did have to insert an entry in the grub menu for Windows. It worked out perfectly. I did this for other operating systems as well (FreeBSD and NetBSD).
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Solution: don't install Windows :)
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I support this concept.
Alternate operating systems such as other linux distro's, windows , and bsd all use boot loaders.
Ubuntu would gain great merit if they would design a utility to repair MBR bootloaders. One thing that would need to happen before this will work is for all partitions to have a special meta-tag that indicates contents (core os, swap,data) so the repairing utility knows what to ignore.
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Joeb454
wrote on the 4 Mar 08 at 01:09
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There's not really much you could add to Ubuntu to remedy this...it's an issue with Windows more than anything, because it automatically assumes you're going to want to install the bootloader!
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I used OpenSuSE 10 before switching to Ubuntu and their installation always included a way to restore the boot record.I am sure it could be done with Ubuntu, it would just require an extra screen or two in ubiquity to make it happen. There should also be an option in the initial menu so you wouldn't have to boot into the LiveCD to do this. This would make Ubuntu much easier to use for this fix than any other distribution out there that I know of. I have been using Ubuntu since warty warthog so I am not a n00bie. :)
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I used OpenSuSE 10 before switching to Ubuntu and their installation always included a way to restore the boot record.I am sure it could be done with Ubuntu, it would just require an extra screen or two in ubiquity to make it happen. There should also be an option in the initial menu so you wouldn't have to boot into the LiveCD to do this. This would make Ubuntu much easier to use for this fix than any other distribution out there that I know of. I have been using Ubuntu since warty warthog so I am not a n00bie. :)
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I used OpenSuSE 10 before switching to Ubuntu and their installation always included a way to restore the boot record.I am sure it could be done with Ubuntu, it would just require an extra screen or two in ubiquity to make it happen. There should also be an option in the initial menu so you wouldn't have to boot into the LiveCD to do this. This would make Ubuntu much easier to use for this fix than any other distribution out there that I know of. I have been using Ubuntu since warty warthog so I am not a n00bie. :)
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konki
wrote on the 4 Mar 08 at 05:33
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I'm using debian without dual-boot installed windows, but this is good idea for a newbie linux users.
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Yanqui
wrote on the 4 Mar 08 at 06:05
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I honestly think the time spent on this could be better spent on making windows unnecessary.
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shane
wrote on the 4 Mar 08 at 06:25
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I agree, since I struggled mightily with this issue last week. I don't ever see myself installing Windows on any of my computers for my own use, but I had to restore Windows XP to sell my old laptop this past weekend. Sure, I'd love to convince the buyer that Ubuntu or some other Linux distro is better, but most ordinary users aren't quite ready for that and I just needed to make a sale.
I even used the Live CD, installed ms-sys and used it to try to restore the MBR to MS standards, but it didn't work for me. Ultimately I ended up borrowing a friend's XP CD instead of using the stupid system restore discs that came with my computer. If there were an easier way to do this with the Live CD I'd be pretty happy with it.
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hackel
wrote on the 4 Mar 08 at 08:29
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This is a Windows bug. Not related to Ubuntu. Send bug reports to Microsoft.
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@Vanqui: The tools for this already exist. It would take probably half an hour to implement into the live CD, and be of enormous benefit to dual-booters who do occasionally have to reinstall Windows. I'm now 100% Ubuntu, but I do see the benefits for people who still dual-boot.
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arito
wrote on the 4 Mar 08 at 18:58
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It seems that someone already posted this idea before me. I did do a search before posting the idea, but apparently missed the one that was there - sorry.
I'm glad that people can see the importance of this feature. The problem is kind of Windows' fault, but the people in trouble are ubunteros. As larryfroot said, this would be a thumbs up for the dual booters out there.
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