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Information about known causes and solutions for the boot-time error message "<strong>No g2ldr</strong>" and other g2ldr errors affecting the boot-up sequence for <strong>Windows XP or Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 or 8.1</strong>

<h2>About "No g2ldr"</h2>

[kbintro]

<h3>Description and Symptoms</h3>

The error messages, alerts, warnings, and symptoms below are tied to this error.

<h4>Symptom 1: "No g2ldr" seen on reboot</h4>
When attempting to start up a PC, an error stating "No g2ldr" is shown on the screen. It may or may not be accompanied with other error details or warning texts:

The full text:

<h3>Causes of this Error</h3>

This error has been known to occur as a result of one or more of the following:

<h4>Cause 1: Failed Linux installation</h4>

G2LDR, short for "GRUB2 Loader," is a variation/fork of the GRUB2 and Grub4Dos bootloaders.

In particular, it is an updated version of Grub4Dos (aka GRLDR) compatible with/designed around the GNU GRUB 2 bootloader (instead of legacy GRUB). Some Linux distributions use the g2ldr bootloader to load the GRUB 2 bootloader from a "Windows" partition — basically, NTFS or FAT32.

A failed such Linux installation can result in the "no g2ldr" error upon boot.

It is also possible for g2ldr to be correctly installed and used for some time, before the error presents itself as a result of a Windows Update or Automatic Update that involved and update or upgrade of one or more of the core boot components (in this case, BOOTMGR or the bootsector).

<h4>Case 2: Failed recovery of the bootsector</h4>

Certain Windows recovery utilities employ G2LDR (the GRUB2 loader for Windows) to load BOOTMGR from the disk.

Normally, this is attempted when the "regular" bootsector used by Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 to locate and load BOOTMGR from the boot partition has failed. In these cases, the G2LDR loader is sometimes used as a proxy to attempt a round-about fashion of locating and loading BOOTMGR.

<h2>Fix no g2ldr in Windows XP</h2>

[setupcd]

<h3>Fix #1: Manually attempt recreation of boot.ini</h3>

For Windows XP machines seeing the "no G2LDR" error at boot, the following instructions detailing the correct (re)installation of the bootsector and Windows XP NTLDR bootloader as well as the recreation of the BOOT.INI boot entry configuration file can repair the issue:

[partial name="partial_bootini"]

<h2>Fix no g2ldr in Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 8.1</h2>

[setupcd]

<h3>Fix #1: Manual recreation of the BCD</h3>

As the "no g2ldr" startup error is normally associated with the presence of a non-standard bootsector, the following instructions on fully reinitializing the MBR and bootsector with the default BOOTMGR-loading code can usually resolve the issue:

[partial name="partial_rebuild_bcd"]

<h3>Fix #2: Use EasyBCD to configure Linux entries</h3>

If this g2ldr error is encountered in the process of installing a Linux distribution that attempts to use a "DOS-based" ((While GRLDR and G2LDR are originally from a project known as "GRUB 4 Dos" or "GRUB for DOS," in reality, DOS has nothing to do with it. The GRLDR/G2LDR projects focus on loading GRUB or GRUB2 from Windows-based partitions, namely FAT32 and NTFS.)) version of GRUB2, then it may be possible to set up the existing, standard BOOTMGR bootloader for Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 to "chainload" the Linux installation and its copy of GRUB2.

Instructions on using EasyBCD and <a title="Linux" href="http://neosmart.net/wiki/easybcd/dual-boot/linux/">creating a dual-boot with Linux</a> can be found in the EasyBCD-specific section of our knowledgebase.

<h2>More Information</h2>

<h3>Linked Knowledgebase Entries</h3>

The errors below have been verified as being associated with or related to this problem:

<ul>
<li><a href="http://neosmart.net/wiki/cannot-find-grldr/">Cannot find GRLDR</a>, a similar error but for the legacy GNU GRUB version of g2ldr</li>
<li><a href="https://neosmart.net/wiki/bootcfg/">bootcfg</a></li>
<li><a href="https://neosmart.net/wiki/bootrec/">bootrec</a></li>
</ul>

[partial name="partial_moreinfo" versions="xp,vista,7,8,server2003,server2008,server2012"]