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I had Ubuntu first, installed Windows later, and for a short period of time I could choose the OS to boot into from the Windows boot, and now it doesn't even give me a choice, just boots right into windows. I have about 200gb of data on the Ubuntu partition, and I need a way to boot back in. How can I resolve this issue?

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2 Answers 2

You will need to re-install Grub. Every time I installed Windows AFTER Linux, Windows would write its Master Boot Record (MBR) over Grub, therefore you will need to re-install grub on your drive.

I don't remember the command from Grub, been too long, hopefully someone can help you out with a link or a step-by-step guide.

Every time I had this issue, all of my data was safe. Unless you did something wrong or something went wrong, all your files should be fine.

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How do I get to the terminal if I cant boot into ubuntu? –  Nigel Oct 22 '12 at 20:20
You ned to yuse the live CD or usbstick –  Louis Loudog Trottier Oct 22 '12 at 22:24
Can you give details on how to do this? Thanks! –  hexafraction Oct 22 '12 at 23:07
download an ubuntu live cd (desktop edition) from ubuntu web site. Burn it on a CD rom and boot from the CD. To burn an ISO in windows, i use magicISO. it's free but beware, there is 2 software, magicISO to mount images (like we can do in linux) and magicISO too burn ISO. Once booted from the live cd, open a terminal and follow the instruction on how to grub your drive (check the link Goddard provided below). –  Louis Loudog Trottier Oct 23 '12 at 3:44
I cannot comment on the answer below, so i will do it here... it will NOT destroy your data, it will only rewrite the MBR. it detect what is on the drives and creat a menu accordinly. i WON'T temper your file unless something goes wrong. To be safe, Unless you encrypted your files, you can backup your data while you are in the 'live' session (booted from the cd). Personnaly i've been throught this process 3-4 times (on ubuntu 8.04) and never lost any files. –  Louis Loudog Trottier Oct 23 '12 at 3:49

Sounds to me like you installed Windows over your Ubuntu install or killed grub.

Windows doesn't play nice with Ubuntu/Linux, but Ubuntu Linux does. So most the time the best way to do this is to install Windows then Ubuntu, but no worries you can easily repair it.

You can watch this video to get an idea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcbTgMKpVHQ

To simplify you can easily just create a live distro and do a grub repair.

How to Repair/Restore/Reinstall Grub 2 with a Ubuntu Live CD

Hope this helps.

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This won't remove any data on it? –  Nigel Oct 22 '12 at 20:18
If you follow this it wont howtoubuntu.org/… –  Goddard Oct 22 '12 at 20:40

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