Maximum PC

HDD setup:
Caviar green 500gb (boot drive w/ ubuntu)
Velociraptor 1st gen 300 gb (windows drive)

I re-installed windows on the velociraptor, and now I do not have access to the Ubuntu partition. How do I get it back without reinstalling ubuntu?





Ted

By reinstalling Windows, you've overwritten the bootloading section of the harddrive. The bootloader no longer 'knows' about the presence of the Ubuntu partition on your HDD.

I would boot from the ubuntu disc and use it to rebuild the MBR and replace the Windows bootloader with grub or lilo.

How you do this, though, I can't describe 'cause I'm at work and don't have access to a ubuntu disc to walk through the process.

I think that it should be pretty intuitive .. just don't confirm anything unless you're certain it is correct.

I could be more vague, but it would require not posting. Sorry.

well, flashing the bios restored grub

explanation: I have 2 HDD's and grub is on one of them. that one is now the boot drive.





Ted

Oh! Jeez .. that's completely different.

You could have just changed the BIOS settings to achieve the same effect, but having the latest BIOS is always a good thing.

well, I got grub back (and an updated bios )





Ted

It is my opinion (n00b though I may be) that:

☼ After installing Windows fresh (which you've done):
☼ Use Partition Wizard 5 Home Edition (inside of Windows, of course ) to resize the main partition so that you have about 20+gb for the Ubuntu install. Then:
☼ Format the partition (still using Partition Wizard) to ext2 or ext4 (if you don't want to see the Ubuntu partition inside of windows and accidentally write to it and possibly corrupt it, NTFS if you are more alert than that). Then:
☼ You can run the Ubuntu CD/DVD install disc from within windows and install to the new partition you created.

(This should also work on drives secondary to the primary Windows drive).

This is the method I used on my rig, just be sure to have an internet connection hooked to the machine you're using so you can get the Ubuntu updates during the install. Also don't forget to open Terminal once you're finished and run this command to get all of your codecs and extras unlocked (you must be logged in a "ROOT" and have an internet connection):

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras