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I installed Ubuntu, but the installation was primitive and probably the wrong edition. It was suggested it may have been the server edition. When I tried to re-install the proper edition, the installer did not detect windows 7 on my disk. Ubuntu is now installed on a separate partition. The ntfs partition is still intact and my windows os is visible as a device within the media folder of my ubuntu file system.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/154418809/Results-of-boot-info-script

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  • If those are the only partitions on the disk, and if you have only one disk, you've accidentally wiped out Windows in your first installation attempt. You could edit your question and post the output of sudo parted -l (please indent each line by four characters; this will preserve the formatting); that will tell us precisely how your disk is partitioned.
    – Rod Smith
    Jul 16, 2013 at 15:21
  • this is the state of the partitions****(INPUT)sudo fdisk -l -u /dev/sda****Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes**** 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors**** Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes**** Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes**** I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes**** Disk identifier: 0x00043cee
    – ssuch
    Jul 17, 2013 at 22:36
  • additionally, ****sudo parted -l**** yields an ****error: can't have a partition outside the disk!**** flickr.com/photos/99031641@N07/9311689650 it seems this is related
    – ssuch
    Jul 17, 2013 at 22:45
  • In the future, please follow directions; your fdisk output is hard to follow because you didn't edit your question and post the information there in the manner instructed. In any event, you do have a rather large NTFS partition (/dev/sda5), but it's unclear if that's your Windows boot partition or a data partition. Try running the Boot Info Script and posting a link to the RESULTS.txt file that it produces for further diagnostics.
    – Rod Smith
    Jul 17, 2013 at 23:34
  • the info in the comments are no longer valid. refer to the link to info on the partitions
    – ssuch
    Jul 19, 2013 at 20:14

1 Answer 1

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Try running the Ubuntu Boot Repair utility. If that fails, it may be necessary to create a custom Windows entry in /etc/grub.d/40_custom and re-running update-grub.

EDIT: The 40_custom entry would look something like this:

menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda3)" --class windows --class os {
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod ntfs
    set root='(hd0,msdos3)'
    chainloader +1
}

If that doesn't work, then it's conceivable it could still be rescued with some sort of tweak (but I can't help beyond this point); or you might have a more fundamental problem, like missing boot loader code in the NTFS partition itself.

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  • @ssuch There were differences e.g. between CD of 12.04 and of 12.04 LTS resp. 12.04.02 ! CD-image of 12.04 had some little bugs, which made installation humblesome or impossible in some cases.
    – dschinn1001
    Jul 19, 2013 at 23:13
  • The boot repair did not solve the issue. The installation was 12.04 LTS. I have the file opened, but how would one create a custom entry?
    – ssuch
    Jul 21, 2013 at 22:34
  • menuentry 'Windows 7' { set root='(hd0,msdos3)' chainloader +1 }' I added this to the mentioned file and updated the grub, but when I select it from the grub menu, I'm told error: no such file
    – ssuch
    Jul 22, 2013 at 2:45
  • It looks like you added your last comment just as I was typing my edited information. Unfortunately, it looks like you may need to use a Windows emergency disc to restore Windows to bootability, and then re-install GRUB to get Ubuntu to boot again. (Boot Repair run from an Ubuntu live CD should be able to do the latter.)
    – Rod Smith
    Jul 22, 2013 at 2:50

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