Installed GRUB to incorrect partition - Help!

Hi there. I am Linux noob, so please bear with me . I installed from a multi-boot USB HD that I made with YUMI 0.0.8.8, and all went fine until I realized that I had misdirected the Ubuntu installer to write to the multi-boot boot sector . So the problem is that although Zorin itself is actually installed to the internal HD of my laptop, the boot up information is on the external USB HD's first partition. I still need to access the multi-boot loader on that HD, as it was set up as an emergency USB Bootdisk to enable me to carry out maintenance and repair on more than one system.
It would be no problem presumably at this stage restoring the multi-boot information, but then I would lose the GRUB for Zorin and not be able to boot into Zorin - I already confirmed that this is the case by removing the USB HD, and was unable to boot into any OS. Thank you for your help, anyone who is willing

First of all you need to establish the name of your main PC partition. Most probably is sda.

Do the following.
Create a bootable USB or DVD of zorin.
Use it to boot into zorin.
Open terminal and write

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

A list of your partitions will be shown. Verify the name of the partition that says "linux" next to it. As I said, it usually is "sda".
Then in terminal write the following commands

Code:

sudo grub-install /dev/sda
sudo update-grub

Restart and see if you can boot into zorin without having the external drive plugged in.

Thank you very much. Unfortunately the system would not allow me to apply those commands. But I managed to use Boot Repair to restore the grub to the correct partition, and it restarted without the USB drive. Now I have another problem however, which is that the swap file is also on the USB HD. What would you recommend please, should I change resize my HD to allow the creation of a new swap partition, if so what size would be necessary for optimum performance?

madvinegar wrote:First of all you need to establish the name of your main PC partition. Most probably is sda.

Do the following.
Create a bootable USB or DVD of zorin.
Use it to boot into zorin.
Open terminal and write

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

A list of your partitions will be shown. Verify the name of the partition that says "linux" next to it. As I said, it usually is "sda".
Then in terminal write the following commands

Code:

sudo grub-install /dev/sda
sudo update-grub

Restart and see if you can boot into zorin without having the external drive plugged in.

Thanks a lot. It seems that Zorin automatically assigned a 2.1 GB RAM disk, despite the fact that I can also see my 2GB swap partition in the disk utility. Zorin seems to be running pretty smoothly as I gradually work my way into it....

Perhaps you wouldn't mind giving me hand with another issue relating to the previous issue? I created a multiple boot disk using YUMI in Windows. Unfortunately I cannot access Windows on my other laptop, and even more unfortunately, although I managed to restore the boot sector correctly in my Zorin installation on this laptop, the boot sector in GRUB on the bootable USB HD no longer allows me to boot from that disk. I can access all the data from within Zorin, but being such a noob to Linux I have no idea how to restore the boot sector.
I tried running YUMI in Zorin, which works, but when I go to access the HD partitions it only shows me C:/ and Z:/, with no indication of the size of the partitions or anything else, so I didn't risk it. I also tried UNET BOOTIN, but the same problem occurs. I tried unmounting everything except the home partition and the USB bootable partition, but still only had the same two partitions to choose between. I think this is a real oversight on the part of the YUMI devs - that is insufficient info even within Windows to avoid working on the incorrect partition!
I did find several tutorials for creating a multi-boot disk within Ubuntu from scratch, but I would far rather use a program at least until I start to get used to working in this environment....
Any help would be appreciated
I should mention that my DVD drive in the other laptop can't read any of the DVDs I tried to burn, so it needs to either be a USB bootable HD or a Flash Drive. I have had no luck with booting from a Flash Drive, although the USB HD was booting fine before the GRUB mixup after I installed Zorin.

swarfendor437 wrote:Just remember you can shrink a GNU/Linux partition but you cannot expand it once you have shrunk it! The 'de facto' base size of swap is 4 Gb - if your machine holds more than 4 Gb then it should match whatever you have got in OR if you intend maxing out your memory, then it should equal that and be at the end of the Zorin drive.

E.g, - my set up is this:

1. Primary ext4 marked as '/' (30 Gb)

2. Logical partition ("roughly" 140 Gb):
a. ext4 marked as '/home' (135 Gb)
b. swap - 4 Gb

Yes, I could only get it working in Wine as I was trying to use it inside this Zorin installation. OK, so in fact I had already downloaded HBCD and burned it to a DVD and I actually had it running when I saw your reply. Sadly, it now seems that my registry is corrupted in my Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit installation. I have a back up on my USB HD made with TodoBackup, but I need it USB bootable before I can use it, unless it is possible to run it in Wine?

How did you manage to install Multisystem? I just read that it only runs in GNU - but on their webpage there are downloads for Ubuntu and Debian. I downloaded the script but Zorin won't let me install it. I believe it is because I have some failed packages I tried to install without realizing that they were listed on an ISO image, and I don't remember which one.....

Anyway, I seem to be going round in circles now.....I even tried to reinstall Windows 7 but it would not continue because of the corrupt registry files. I am out of my depth here.

swarfendor437 wrote:OK, if you are seeing C:/ and Z:/ then it is running in WINE! (Windows emulator) I know this because I had a funny how do you do after installing the Windows version of 7-Zip on to Zorin (I prefer a graphical interface to command line for extracting and archiving! ). Now unfortunately the latest version of Ultimate Boot CD is not as helpful as the old copy of 3.3 I have which would run a DOS window for its boot manager software - it would show all the partitions, you scrolled down to NTFS and boot into Windows! It was really good for recovering another box that had XP on it and a corrupt GRUB so I could start over.

Two places I would check out for a plethora of utilities in one source: Hiren's Boot CD - don't let the title put you off - I have it on my 16 Gb Flash drive (Thumb/Pen drive, whatever you prefer to call it) - alongside Zorin OS 5, Comice OS4 (Pear Linux), BackTrack 5.1, Ultimate Edition 3.0 and Ultimate Edition 3.4.

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

Now for (IMHO) the best multiboot loader for pendrive is 'MultiSystem' but it only runs in GNU/Linux! (Yay! )

ourceforge.net/projects/multisystem/

(Which is why I have all that stuff on my pendrive!)


[posted from my SolusOS 1.3 desktop! ]