Thursday, September 8, 2011

Solution for : Windows7 / Ubuntu 11.04 option missing from the boot menu


Today, I've done a mistake while installing my Ubuntu 11.04 alongside windows.
After selecting the partitions and assigning /boot, swap and / we need to choose where to install the grub boot loader. By default, the boot loader should be installed in the 1st partition of the first hard disk i.e., (hd0,0). I have windows7 already installed on my system. So, there is one more option named windows 7 loader. Due to lack of knowledge, I thought that default boot loader will be replaced by the new Grub loader and selected it. What happened is, I have both windows and ubuntu safely residing on different partitions of my hard disk. But not able to boot into windows7. In the Grub that appears at system startup, we need to choose an option named windows7 loader in order to get into windows box. But entering this option yielded with the result of same boot menu again and again. Then I understood my mistake. I have replaced the windows boot loader with the grub loader. This is my mistake. So, I entered my ubuntu, connected internet and then googled for the solution. After much work and many trails, I did the following procedure.

  1. Reboot and enter the option named "windows 7 recovery loader" which appears in the boot menu of grub. This takes you to a command prompt(windows).
  2. Type "bootrec /FixBoot" and press Enter
  3. If it doesn't work then type "bootrec /RebuildBcd" or
  4. "bootrec /FixMbr" (all commands without quotes).
  5. If it worked, no message will be displayed. But in case of error, the error message will be displayed.
  6. Try following the above order.
  7. Reboot. You will enter into Windows without asking for boot menu. Don't panic. Your ubuntu is still safe.
  8. Now put your ubuntu CD and delete the partitions given for /boot,swap,/ . 
  9. Make them again as usual and reinstall the ubuntu without touching bootloader installation area. (Leave it as it is. It gets installed into /dev/sda. And reinstalling doesn't delete your files in ubuntu).
  10. After installtion, you will be back with your bookmarks, personal folders etc,.
  11. Reboot to check for dual boot menu.
  12. Now, grub is same as before. But entering the option "Windows 7 loader" will take you to windows. Otherwise you will be redirected to Ubuntu.


Note : Don't lose patience and don't get tensed. It works fine.Let me know through your comments if the problem is not cleared.

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