So, I managed to erase grub, and can only boot into windows...

[nightmare]

"How?" you may wonder, well, it's a long story, but I used Gparted to do some resizing with my windows 7 partition, which made it so it wouldn't start up (and linux mint wouldn't either, only Jolicloud from which I used Gparted in) and had to repair it using the install disc.

I've tried these directions:
GRUB bootloader - Full tutorial
(the "installing grub natively" and the "grub-install" parts) But I always get an error that grub doesn't exist or similar, and it doesn't go any further.

So, how would I get grub back so I can boot windows, linux, etc. with it, and is it possible to put it on a separate partition to keep it going in case I delete a distro, mess up something, etc.?

[oz]

Assuming you have all your partitions the way you want them and they are setup properly, you can run the fdisk command to see current partition layout:

fdisk -l

(note that it's a lower-case letter L in the command and not a number 1)

Then you'll need to edit your /etc/fstab file and your /boot/grub/menu.lst file accordingly (root permissions needed to edit those files) to match the current layout. Once you have those properly edited, you should be able to reinstall GRUB to the MBR and then reboot to see if it all works.

[nujinini]

Hi nightmare,

So your system is already double boot, Win 7 and Mint, did I get this right?

grub doesn't exist or similar, and it doesn't go any further.

You might want to just reinstall your Mint Partition. This will automatically reinstall your grub. Just make sure you back-up all important data.

and is it possible to put it on a separate partition to keep it going in case I delete a distro, mess up something, etc.?

You can also make another partition and make way for another distro if you wish. I mean if your system is still up to it and you want to give it a try. Personally I would rather go for my first approach...but then again...its all up to you

Good luck!


EDIT: Ooopsss.. You might want to try Ozar's advice first though

[yancek]

The link you posted is to a tutorial for Grub Legacy. If you are using Linux Mint 8 or 9, it uses Grub2 and that may be part of the problem. If you use Mint 7 or earlier, it's the correct tutorial.

In addition to the partition information requested above, it would be helpful if you could inform us what you did, what partitions you re-sized and where they were on the disk?

[nightmare]

The link you posted is to a tutorial for Grub Legacy. If you are using Linux Mint 8 or 9, it uses Grub2 and that may be part of the problem. If you use Mint 7 or earlier, it's the correct tutorial.

In addition to the partition information requested above, it would be helpful if you could inform us what you did, what partitions you re-sized and where they were on the disk?

Well, I deleted a partition with stuff like music, movies, etc. on my first HDD (NTFS, recognized as /dev/sda1) and resized my main Windows 7 partition (/dev/sda2) to use that freed space using Gparted. My linux distros are on the second internal HDD (/dev/sdb).

After the resize, I couldn't boot into Linux Mint 9, only Jolicloud, and when I tried booting windows, it gave an error that I had to insert windows installation disc and repair it (which I did).

P.S. Can I install Linux distros on an external HDD without having to do anything special, and use them on any PC (that can boot from USB)?

P.P.S Is there a good system saving or other small distro with Grub I could install and have "Just in case"?

[yancek]

P.S. Can I install Linux distros on an external HDD without having to do anything special, and use them on any PC (that can boot from USB)?

No. The something special you would need to do is install Grub stage1 to the mbr of that particular drive. A simple thing to do. In order to then boot it from a computer that will boot from external USB, you would simply need to have that drive set to first boot priority.

P.P.S Is there a good system saving or other small distro with Grub I could install and have "Just in case"?

Not sure what you mean here? A small operating system with Grub which you can use to boot other systems? Puppy, Slitaz are very small. You could create a boot CD and use that.