How Do I Fix or Re-install GRUB?

[R0b0ty]

I "WAS" running Fedora 16 (64-bit) on my Samsung laptop.

It's a dual boot machine (Windows 7 on a separate partition). The GRUB menu showed both operating systems, plus a "recovery" partition. This recovery partition is a Samsung thing, which allows me to back up, restore, and reinstall the OS (I had never used it before).

As I'm gathering my thoughts to install Fedora 17 (full install, not as an upgrade), I selected the "recovery" partition from the GRUB menu. It launched without problems, I intended to do a backup, but noticed that I didn't have my external drive available... so I exited the application (gracefully and without errors). The laptop did a reboot automatically and went to the GRUB menu as usual... but only for a fraction of a second (it didn't have enough time to display the list of options). It just flashes "GRUB" on the screen indefinitely.

Fortunately, I had made a new Fedora 17 Live CD (which I'm using to write this message) and managed to mount my original "home" directory and have just finished backing up my data to the external drive. Now I can experiment, since I've broken my laptop pretty good (all I can do is go into BIOS and boot from this Live CD).

Can I fix, restore, or reinstall GRUB (assuming that it's the problem)? Can anyone point me in the right direction?

As a last resort, I can do a full install of Fedora 17, hoping that the new installation restores GRUB functionality and that it detects the Windows 7 OS (I'm giving this laptop to my son for college... he'll need Windows).

[nonamedotc]

GRUB recovery can be done generally.

Easiest method: If you want to restore your F16 install and have a F16 DVD, just boot the DVD and choose to upgrade (yes, even if it is F16). You should get a 'Nothing to do' sort of screen and the subsequent step will be to install the bootloader. Do that and your grub should be installed.

If you want, just wipe your old fedora and install F17. F17 recognizes windows without any problems in my experience.

You can also use Live CD to resintall grub and is something asked about often. Just do a quick search and you should be able to find the detailed steps.

Hope this helps. Cheers.

---------- Post added at 10:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:53 PM ----------

oh by the way, take a look at this documentation. This will also potentially help you resolve the issues you are facing.

[R0b0ty]

Thanks. I did find various posts on doing grub2-install, etc. It didn't work for me... If I remember correctly, I got errors (something about "core dump" or something).

But as I'm planning on installing Fedora 17 anyway, I'll just do a full installation and hope that it fixes GRUB in the process. Again, thanks for the response.