Grub Rescue - Complete Re-install of GRUB 2 from Live USB

Seeing nothing but the grub rescue prompt? Did Windows mess up your Master Boot Record? Using Ubuntu, GRUB 2 got you down? Who needs Live CDs? This video tutorial will show you how you can use an Ubuntu Live USB drive to reinstall GRUB, even when your boot device is inaccessible.

Commands used in this video:

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt *****Using the linux installation on your hard drive instead of /dev/sda5
sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
sudo chroot /mnt
grub-install /dev/sda *****Using your boot device instead of /dev/sda
CTRL-D
sudo umount /mnt/dev
sudo umount /mnt/proc
sudo umount /mnt/sys
sudo umount /mnt

This video was produced on Linux and edited entirely using open source programs!

[GamingPalooza]

i must kindly ask for assistance.

I'm trying to install Lubuntu and it keeps coming up with "Bootloader install failed" and a grub error. It could possibly be something I'd doing wrong, how would I tell?

[mikemontgomery]

Nixie - You're an angel!!! Nicely presented and gave me the confidence to try it. This enabled me to move my server from a failing 1.8T hard drive to a newer but crucially, smaller drive by copying files etc rather than DD. One problem though, my /boot is on it's own partition so also had to mount it to /mnt before the chroot. Without that the system rebooted to Grub prompt - probably obvious to those at your level but left me scratching my head for a while :-)) Many thanks.

[benisaac]

Clear instructions, straightforward, to the point, all the steps were explained, including commands and done in less than 4 minutes. You're great = sub

[adamduvick]

Much appreciation for the brevity & clarity! I watched a bunch of other videos that were not of much help. This one worked for me. The only thing that I had to do differently is mount my EFI partition to /mnt/boot/efi before I could successfully re-install grub.

[lightsite]

Cant believe this holds 11 years after, thank you so much it helped me a lot!

[lend]

You saved my Linux install!  :)  Your directions were perfect!
Many Thanks!

[Shaunbrough]

Very helpful. I once had a corrupted usb hard drive that had my only copy of a lot of files and I couldn't access it so I held on to it and one day I learned about gpart and I was able to recover the master boot record and access my files long enough to back it up. There is a lot that you can do with a Ubuntu live CD and a Ubuntu live USB. Keep up the good work.

[yimoawanardo]

Good video! This helped me fixed my dual boot issue (Manjaro + Ubuntu). Really appreciate it!

[gabriellukinskas]

Nixie still today is a real beauty (and a real techie) We love you! Thanks for the tutorial

[jeremyts]

8 years later and this video still useful, you just won a suscriber

[bomberbinz]

Hour of searching for a answer, and fixed my boot issue. Many thanks .

[WilliamVallance]

Great tutorial! The last time I installed Windows 7 on a separate partition I ran Boot-Repair on a Live USB drive and it made the repair much quicker.

[Galexandru]

Thanks a lot for this tutorial, Nixie. I installed Ubuntu 12.04 on my father's PC (which was running on XP btw) and after a few days he ran into some problems while booting. So after a few hours, trying to solve the issues myself, I decided to look on the Internet for a solution. Luckily this video popped up and helped me solve the problem. Thanks!

[deejaymalta]

After using an Ubuntu 13.04 disc to update from 12.10 I was getting the grub rescue screen. I figured maybe something didn't install right so I even tried re-installing but still got the rescue screen. I followed every step exactly and it worked. I don't know how this stuff works, but I'm sure glad that someone does. Thanks a ton!

[RobertAbraham]

Very nice tutorial I've never done this such quickly :) Today I would have really needed it but got a few errors while trying to fix Grub manually so I had to use boot-repair PPA instead. It did the trick. Probably the mistake was that I tried to mount /dev/sda first and failed to mount /sys. I was in a hurry :/

[mountaineertheband]

You have saved me countless times from pulling my hair out. I had to give in and install a windows partition for a few programs and it took over grub and I couldn't boot Ubuntu. Thanks so much! This fixed it

[alexis]

two things i LOVE, the ASMR and repair my PC, subs now! i love your yt chanel !

[saundersriley]

Thank you. I just about broke GRUB trying to upgrade Ubuntu. Very useful.

[Douglas-hwis]

Thanks for this - very kind of you - nice and clear - MUCH appreciated.

[nmarks]

Absolute lifesaver - can't thank you enough!