Anyone who has tried dual-booting Windows and Linux on the same PC is sure to have come across this problem. I’ve faced this same problem more than once, and I believe that the Windows boot-loader still has some lessons to learn from its Linux counterparts. Just a while ago, Windows had messed up my Grub boot loader and I couldn’t boot into Ubuntu.

Try this quick workaround to get Grub back. You will need administrative access for the below procedure. (This fix should work for most Linux distributions. I have only tried this on Ubuntu)

Solution 1:

1. Boot from the Live CD for your distribution.

2. Open up a terminal and become root:
su -

3. Type grub which makes a GRUB prompt appear.

4. Type find /boot/grub/stage1.
You’ll get a response like “(hd0)” or in my case “(hd0,6)”. Look at the output and use the respective number for the below command.

5. Type root (hd0,6).

6. Type setup (hd0,6).
(If you want to write GRUB to the MBR, just type “setup (hd0)”. If you want to write it to your linux root partition, then you want the number after the comma, such as “(hd0,3)”.

7. Type quit.

8. Remove the bootable CD and restart the system.

Solution 2:

First you need to gain root access.

1. Boot from the Live CD for your distribution.

2. At “boot:” prompt, add “rescue” to the argument.
boot: rescue

3. Follow the on-screen instructions.

4. Now, assumed that /dev/hda is the location of /boot partition type:
grub-install /dev/hda

5. Reboot. You should now be able to get Grub back.

Try either one of the above solutions and post in the comments which method worked for you