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While trying to re-install Windows (I am running Arch/Win7 dual boot) I accidentally deleted a partition labelled (in the Windows installer) as 'recovery'. I didn't fully install Windows (I lost my product key), but my computer now tries to boot straight into Windows, as opposed to GRUB.

I am following two sets of instructions (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=141489 and http://pivica.me/blog/reinstalling-erased-boot-partition-linux), but I'm not confident about them. The first one is a little sparse and the second is a different distro (Kubuntu).

Any help with solving this would be appreciated. Also, I am far from a Linux expert so don't make too many assumptions about what I already know about Linux.

edit: I booted my bootable USB and ran sfdisk -l. It says that /dev/sda1 is a boot partition, id 7 (HPFS/NTFS/exFAT), 102400 blocks (this means it's ~100MB, yes?). Could that be the Windows boot manager, or why would it be labelled as "boot" in sfdisk? Could it be my /boot? I'm not totally sure if I deleted my /boot, but the symptoms suggest it to me.

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  • Could you please post your partition geometry (table) as well. Output from parted or fdisk would be very nice?
    – Firelord
    Mar 29, 2015 at 12:54
  • Could that be the Windows boot manager, or why would it be labelled as "boot" in sfdisk? Could it be my /boot? -- For a system with Windows, this first partition with 100MB size, NTFS filesystem and boot flag is Windows Boot partition. It is typically flagged as hidden in Windows, the reason why you or a malware can't easily mount it inside the Windows. This partition is not /boot and has nothing to do with Linux.
    – Firelord
    Mar 29, 2015 at 16:40

2 Answers 2

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You can chroot into your install from a live distro. This would allow you to run your grub2-mkconfig and genkernel all again. Remember to mount /boot first.

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  • Finding /boot might be easier if you take a look at the mountpoints with cat /etc/fstab Mar 29, 2015 at 13:39
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You could try use Boot-Repair, its an repair tool that solve problems like yours, when you can't boot Ubuntu after installing Windows or another Linux distribution, or when you can't boot Windows after installing Ubuntu, or when GRUB is not displayed anymore, some upgrade breaks GRUB, etc

I suggest the best way to use Boot-Repair is to create a disk containing the tool or install the ISO on a live-USB.

This link may help you:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

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