So I tried dual booting for the first time, along with my first shot at linux, and I goofed pretty hard. Idk how, but my user files from win10 got put on my linux (mint18) drive, and I was trying to move them back, and I guess I deleted the partition that had my grub on it? Now I cannot log into windows or Linux, and currently I am trying to re download linux on a flash drive, to keep it away from all of my files, but I'm not entirely positive what I should do. Any help would be great, as I have kinda goofed my $2000 pc. Only have one pic, and I know it's not a screens hot, but I can't get into an os! Thank you!
Try these instructions:
- boot with any livecd (ubuntu, debian, etc) and backup youR data to a usb or network drive just to make sure you have a copy fo you data
- Use a super grub disk to boot into your linux distro
- Recreate your grub using the instruction on the bottom of the page http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wizard-restore-grub-with-super-grub2-disk/
if you still have your live USB or CD i would boot into that and see if you can get your data back. if you can then i would just reinstall grub onto the drive.
This is very helpful, but terminal is not allowing me to access the drives with my files. Says that it can't find a conical path to "/cow"
Ah, grub does that. Its really a piece of shit but no one wants to update other loaders that make 200 times more sense like LiLO or syslinux.
So go get a ubuntu based liveCD and boot into that and google Grub Boot Repair. Install that, hit 1 button, reboot, you're done. Later on in your linux life you'll know what drive is what in grub and you'll fix it yourself.
over complicating multi boot is a crook of shit.................... personal opinion. I boot mutliple windows and linux distros all the time. Biggest issue i suffer is a know clock error............
When I do a multi boot system I separate both systems onto 2 separate drives. Windows was installed first and then I unplugged the drive and booted my Linux Distro and installed that on the other drive. That way I can make sure none of my windows software gets overwritten. Although now most of the software I need to work with is on Linux so I just virtualize a windows vm inside my Linux OS. If your trying to duel boot especially for a beginner it is best to use 2 drives and unplug the windows drive when you install Linux.