Mac, Ubuntu, Windows....Uh Oh, Can't Boot

After successfully installing Mac OSX 10.6.6 on my brother’s Sony VAIO, my dad needed the hard-drive expanded to install XCODE for Iphone dev. First, I tried shrinking the Windows partition and merging it into the Mac partition. I could shrink the Windows partition but unfortunatly couldn’t merge it with the Mac one. I tried to create a new partition from the empty space in Ubuntu but it said it couldn’t because 4 was the max unless it was an extended partition :(. I then decided to delete the Ubuntu partition from windows and format it to fat32, a universal filesystem. Mac would be able to see it but, after  trying to boot back up, grub rescue> came up. Duh! Grub was installed with Ubuntu! It worked and I finally installed XCODE after I booted up from my USB Ubuntu Live CD and reinstalled GRUB with these instructions:

Grub 2 Basics - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275

Reinstalling GRUB 2 from LiveCD If you cannot boot from GRUB 2 and need to reinstall it, here is the simple method. For more details or for advanced options, refer to the Ubuntu community documentation here: Grub2 - Reinstalling GRUB 2:

• Boot the Ubuntu Live CD (Try without installing).

• From the Desktop, open a terminal - Applications, Accessories, Terminal.

• Determine your normal system partition - sudo fdisk -l (That is a lowercase L)

• If you aren’t sure, run df -Th. Look for the correct disk size and ext3 or ext4 format.

• Mount your normal system partition:

  sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt
  

  • If you aren’t sure if you mounted the correct partition, once it’s mounted run “nautilus /mnt” to inspect the partition. If it is the correct partition, you should see the normal Ubuntu folders such as /bin, /boot, /etc, /home, etc
  • Example: sudo mount /dev/sda1/mnt
  • Note: The partition to mount is normally the partition on which Ubuntu was installed: sda1, sdb5, etc. If you have a separate /boot partition, use the device on which the /boot partition is located. Grub 2 works best when installed in the MBR of the drive to which BIOS boots. Also remember that you mount the partition (including the number) in this step, but you do not include the partition number when you run the “sudo grub-install” command later.
  • Note: GRUB 2 counts the first drive (X) as “0”, but the first partition (Y) as “1”

• Only if you have a separate boot partition:

  sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt/boot
  

  with sdXY being your /boot partition designation.

• Reinstall GRUB 2:

  sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sdX
  

  Do NOT include the partition number.

  • Example: sudo grub-install –root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda
  • Note: Substitute the device on which Ubuntu was installed - sda, sdb, etc. Do not specify a partition number.

• Unmount the partition:

  sudo umount /mnt
  

  • Note: If you mounted a separate /boot partition, unmount it first:

    sudo umount /mnt/boot
    

• Reboot.