Super GRUB Disk--A GRUB Repair Utility

Super GRUB Disk can fix a wide variety of boot-up problems on GRUB-based systems.  It's easy to use, yet versatile.  And, it's quite well-documented.  As good as it is though, it doesn't seem to get a lot of publicity in the Linux press. 

Lesson 7 | Quiz

You can download it for free from their newly-redesigned web site.  There are image files for CD-ROM, floppy disk, and USB "thumb" drive.  (The main functional difference between the three is that the CD-ROM image contains support for multiple languages.  For the other two, you'll need to pick the image for your desired language.)

In the web site's documentation section, you'll find directions on how to transfer the image file to the appropriate medium.

Normally, you would boot Super GRUB Disk from CD, floppy disk, or USB drive.  But, if you ever need to repair GRUB from within Windows, you can run the Auto Super GRUB Disk, instead.

The documentation is quite good, and is easy to follow.  (You won't have any problems figuring it out.)

If the official documentation doesn't do it for you, there's also a link to some excellent third-party documentation.

Here's the opening menu that you'll see when you first boot Super GRUB Disk from a CD.

As we said, it's well-documented, so there's no real need to for us to cover operation in any great detail.  Basically. . .

If you only have one partition, and you need to do a quick repair, choose "GRUB => MBR & !LINUX! (1) AUTO".   Choose the "MANUAL" option if you need to choose a particular Linux partition.  The two "!LINUX!" selections will boot Linux without modifying your GRUB configuration.  "!WIN!" will boot Windows without modifying the GRUB configuration, and "WIN => MBR & !WIN!" option will remove GRUB, and cause your machine to boot only from Windows.

The "Choose a Language & HELP" option will allow you to obtain help in a variety of languages.  It will also take you to the "classic" menu, where you can choose other options.

I think you'll find that Super GRUB Disk is a handy little utility that's well worth keeping in your repair toolbox.  Check it out at:

http://www.supergrubdisk.org

It gets upgraded fairly frequently, so be sure to check back often.

by Donnie Tevault