GRUB rescue> after changing a partition table

[goldfish777]

Ok, so here is my problem. I had a dual boot with M$ and linux. I, as I normally do, was messing around and broke the system. That was fine. I resetup the dual boot but accidentally, instead of installing over my broken linux install I added another side-by-side OS. I found this out, and went to fix it.

I then deleted the old linux partitions, and then moved the new one back and expanded it to fill the empty space. After that, as I predicted of going to happen, grub got all confused. I then put in a few set commands and isnmod to get me back to the normal grub menu. From there, I edited an entry so I could boot into linux and then ran "grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg" so grub would regenerate the config file.

I rebooted and got the same error message. I have looked at the entries for the windows kernel and the linux kernel and they are both good. What am I missing?

[devils casper]

After that, as I predicted of going to happen, grub got all confused.

How could that happen? Are you using custom GRUB? Haven't installer installed GRUB in MBR and setup dual boot itself?

Exactly what error message are you getting?

[goldfish777]

the exact error is:
"error: no such partition"

From there is goes into a grub rescue prompt. I expected this to happen though.
I had two operating systems installed:
Windows---Linux

Then I added one and had three operating systems installed:
Windows(sda1,2,3)---Linux(sda4,5)---Linux(new)(sda6,7)

After that I deleted the first linux kernel and all of its related partitions(/dev/sda5, /dev/sda6). Next I moved the latter one back and resized its main partition to fill the space. So grub which is located on the second linux install got had its partition name changed when I deleted the first linux install(sda4,5) because then sda6,7 were changed to sda4,5.
That would have messed up the references in the MBR and given the grub error. Right?

[goldfish777]

So here is the partition table as stated by fdisk:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe686f016

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1           6       48163+  de  Dell Utility
/dev/sda2              19       13758   110359583    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3           14410       30402   128457729    5  Extended
/dev/sda4           13759       14409     5229157+  db  CP/M / CTOS / ...
/dev/sda5           14410       29450   120808448   83  Linux
/dev/sda6           29450       30402     7647232   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

And here is grub.cfg:

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
  load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
  set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
  save_env saved_entry
  set prev_saved_entry=
  save_env prev_saved_entry
  set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
  if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
    saved_entry=${chosen}
    save_env saved_entry
  fi
}

function recordfail {
  set recordfail=1
  if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 91a5ea04-14b8-4124-b1c7-73db8e58bc85
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=1024x768
  set gfxpayload=keep
  insmod gfxterm
  insmod vbe
  if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
    # For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
    # understand terminal_output
    terminal gfxterm
  fi
fi
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 91a5ea04-14b8-4124-b1c7-73db8e58bc85
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,5)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 91a5ea04-14b8-4124-b1c7-73db8e58bc85
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38 root=UUID=91a5ea04-14b8-4124-b1c7-73db8e58bc85 ro   text splash nomodeset vga=791
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.38
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38 (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,5)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 91a5ea04-14b8-4124-b1c7-73db8e58bc85
	echo	'Loading Linux 2.6.38 ...'
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38 root=UUID=91a5ea04-14b8-4124-b1c7-73db8e58bc85 ro single 
	echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.38
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,5)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 91a5ea04-14b8-4124-b1c7-73db8e58bc85
	linux16	/boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,5)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 91a5ea04-14b8-4124-b1c7-73db8e58bc85
	linux16	/boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Dell Utility Partition (on /dev/sda1)" {
	insmod fat
	set root='(hd0,1)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 07d6-0913
	drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
	chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Windows XP Media Center Edition (on /dev/sda2)" {
	insmod ntfs
	set root='(hd0,2)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 641C36851C3651F2
	drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
	chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Windows NT/2000/XP (on /dev/sda4)" {
	insmod fat
	set root='(hd0,4)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 4510-0903
	drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
	chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

[goldfish777]

So I got it fixed. I don't know how exactly to fix it except maybe reinstall GRUB. I just found out that my 6 year old laptop has a 64bit processor so I reinstalled Linux with a 64bit version and with that came a fresh install of GRUB.

Thanks, but all is well.