Grub at boot???

rimskyx

Distinguished Member
ok ..i havent got round to a complete reinstall as yet > i thought the h/d was dying on me but it seems to have recovered !!!
Anyway I was wondering about this > i may have mentioned it before !!!
when i first boot PC I get a black screen with the word Grub and a flashing , but not working, cursor at the top left hand corner of the screen. Then nothing happens and I have to reboot and it reboots to the windows boot manager and i can boot into all windows o/s from there . The PC always does this .... what is this Grub and how can i get rid of it!!

ps i do have Ubuntu installed on a separate drive and can only get into it by clicking on it in the boot list ... i have to unplug the ubuntu drive to access the windows drives ,,.. otherwise the windows will just boot into a loding loop and get stuck there !!!
 
ok .. just run thru that BUT I still cannot configure easy BCD as I cannot get into windows to access EasyBCD to add the linux drive when that drive is plugged in !!!!!
I am sure that I added grub to the linux drive as per instructions ....
 
If you cant get into Widnows then no wonder why you cant get it working. Fix the Vista boot loader. That is your first step. You need to be in Windows.
 
A startup repair should have worked. Give it a go a few more times. It doesn't always seem to fix everything at once. You might also need to disconnect the Linux drive during the repair so that it doesn't get confused and/or write to the wrong drive.
 
i will try to explain!!!

Mak etc

its not that i cannot boot to windows > BUT that I can only do so if the linux disk is unplugged, AND there fore when i get to easybcd in windows the linux disk is NOT there to add!!

this is my set up disk 0 xp64 and vista 32
disk 1 vista 64
disk 2 ubuntu....
 
So what do you boot to when the Linux disc is installed? You are not giving us the info needed to help fix this. Saying that you can boot into Widnows in one post then saying you can but not with the Linux drive doesnt help. We need to know everythign. When you can boot into Windows, when you cant, what changes you made.

From the sounds of it the Linux drive is taking priority and you need to go into your BIOS and set the Windows Drive as the priority.
 
ok when i very first boot up i get to a black screen with GRUB _ at the top left (this is with the linux disk unplugged) Then nothing happens > i reboot and i get to the windows boot manager screen and i can boot into windows ..
To boot to the linux disk I plug it in and i hit F11 and choose to boot from it wihtout probs ????
 
Alright.... this is a common problem with Ubuntu installation when mutliple drives are present in the system. Your issue is that during the installation of Ubuntu it wrote to Vistas drives' mbr instead of Ubuntus'.

So basically to fix this you'll need to make sure Vista's drive is first in the boot sequence of your BIOS and either disconnect or disable Ubuntu's drive. Do startup repair from a Vista disc (or recovery disc), verify Vista's drive well boot on its own, and then and only then re-enable or re-connect Ubuntu's drive. Verify that you can still boot Ubuntu and if not, re-install grub or Ubuntu making sure it is writing to the correct drive's mbr or its own partition.

EDIT: According to your first post Vista boots fine with Ubuntu's drive disconnected. If that's the case, try what I orginally reccommended, but then I'm assuming the second drive wasn't present/not connected when Vista was installed. You should actually leave the second drive connected and do startup repair if the above still did not fix the problem.
 
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That cant be true. If so then how does it boot to Windows when the Linux drive is not hooked up? It would just boot to Windows without the GRUB loader first coming up.

There is a mix up in teh BIOS as to which drive has priority i wont argue that. But each drive has their own boor loader.
 
when all 3 h/d's are plugged in I can only boot to the linux disk by hitting F11 ans selecting the linux disk from the menu otherwise it will go to the windows manager page and nothing will boot ... I have reset the boot sequence so that the disk with vista 32 on is first in the list > then vista 64 and then ubuntu BUT it makes no difference ,,> as suggested above i ran the repair from the vista disk (with ubuntu disconnected) and it returned a 'windows cannot repair this computer automattically!!!
 
Have you run the repair more than once? Sometimes it takes the automated repair several tries to fix it. Have you tried to manually fix the boot with the steps provided in that page in the Wiki?
 
so I should run easy bcd as per wiki untill it is fixed (with the linux drive unplugged)and THEN turn off the PC , plug in the ubuntu drive (as it should boot into windows by then with the linux drive plugged in ) and then add the linux entry as it (the linux drive ) should show by then in the 'drive ' box ...????
 
I have reset easy bcd but the situation remains > this may be of interest > if i set the bios to boot from the linux disk it does so without problems > i then get to a menu which i assume is Grub > as i said i can then boot to linux without problems AND windows XP but NEITHER of the two Vistas !!!
 
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