Grub rescue, unknown file system. Can't boot into Windows 7

Posted by Sam J on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Sam J
Published on 2011-04-03T03:33:52Z Indexed on 2012/04/07 11:35 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 276

Filed under:

Windows

|

ubuntu

|

partitioning

|

grub

|

bootloader

So, I'm confused, so I'm also going to use this question to get clarification and fix my computer.

So, some background: I had Windows 7 on a 1 TB HDD and decided to partition my hard drive into two ~500 GB, one for Windows 7 and one for Ubuntu or whatever flavour I desired (like a sandbox partition...)

I installed Ubuntu but the installation had issues so I decided to uninstall. Note before uninstallation I had to press f12 when I turned on to boot from my primary HDD, then choose what OS I wanted to use. Undesirable, but it worked.

Anyway, after I decided to uninstall Ubuntu I went into Windows 7 > Start > Computer > Manage and deleted the EXT4 filesystem (Ubuntu parition) giving me 4xx GB of free space. However when I restarted Windows 7, I am now unable to boot Windows.

When I DON'T hit f12, I see a blank screen with a flashing underscore. When I DO hit f12, I choose my primary HDD, and then I get a GRUB error:

Unknown filesystem:

grub rescue> _

Something I'm unclear of: GRUB boots linux partitions, right? What boots Windows? Is GRUB "overwriting" the Windows bootloader? How can I completely get Windows back to normal? (IE, It boots automatically without hitting f12.)

Thanks for any help, I'm on a live CD version of Ubuntu right now until I can get back on Windows.

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about Windows

Server 2012 DFS New Member Issue

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am trying to add a new member to our DFS topology. We have 3 DCs (VMs - VMware) running Windows server 2012, two servers are located in or Primary site and the third at our DR site. Currently the two servers at our primary site are currently replicating DFS (full mesh) and are working fine. I have… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
Microsoft Management Console stops working when I add snap-in to it

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have Windows 7 Ultimate OS. I'm opening mmc.exe as administrator and trying add Certificates or any other snap-in, then while loading that snap-in MMC breaks and displays following message and after that it closes automatically once I click on close button on that message. What could be the problem… >>> More
Handling keyboard and mouse input (Win API)

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
There is a number of ways to catch mouse or keyboard under Windows. So I tried some of them, but every of them has some advantages and drawbacks. I want to ask you: Which method do use? I've tried these: WM_KEYDOWN/WM_KEYUP - Main disadvantage is that, I can't distinguish between left and right-handed… >>> More

Related posts about ubuntu

Cannot update, apt-get cannot fetch index files

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a fresh install of Ubuntu 11.10 from the iso 'ubuntu-11.10-desktop-amd64.iso'. I installed this in VMWare Fusion 4.1.1 running on OSX 10.7.3. When setting up the VM, I allowed easy install to take care of creating my user and installing VMWare tools. No problems during installation, everything… >>> More
'sudo apt-get update' error on Ubuntu 12.04

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
When I type in 'sudo apt-get update' I get this mohd-arafat-hossain@TUD:~$ sudo apt-get update [sudo] password for mohd-arafat-hossain: Ign http://bd.archive.ubuntu.com precise InRelease Ign http://bd.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates InRelease Ign http://bd.archive.ubuntu… >>> More
Opening Skype, Opera, OpenOffice logs me off

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
Whats common among Skype, Opera, OpenOffice in Ubuntu ? Whenever I open these applications I get logged off and shows back me the login screen. This started happening since the 10.10 upgrade. Forgot to mention : Yes, its x64.Each time I open these applications, the UI shows and then crashes. I… >>> More
Update information outdated

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a warning triangle that my update information is outdated, the last update was 12 days ago. I use Ubuntu 11.10. A run of sudo apt-get update produces the following output: Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net oneiric InRelease Ign http://de.archive.ubuntu.com oneiric InRelease … >>> More
ubuntu/apt-get update said "Failed to Fetch http:// .... 404 not found"

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi all, I'm trying to run apt-get update on ubuntu 9.10 I've configured my proxy server and I can access the internet without any problem: /etc/apt# wget "http://www.google.com" Resolving (...) Proxy request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 292 [text/html] Saving to: `index.html' 100%[=================================================================================================================================>]… >>> More