32 replies to this topic

[Just_A_Novice]

• Since I have joined this forum I got very interested in Grub4Dos, and since then I have read up on all the bells and whistles about this great universal boot loader.
  
• Well since I am in the entry stages of Computer Repair down here in southern Florida where most folks don't really have a clue on how to do Preventive Maintenance on their computers they bring it to us at your local computer repair shop.
  
• To make a long story short I came across 3 systems that needed a complete factory image restore.
  
• I cant tell you how frustrating it is to keep on seeing a manufacturers splash screen and no recovery options listed at the bottom or within the BIOS setup. Countless efforts of Google searching trying to locate combination keys to hit prior to P.O.S.T (Power On Self Test) to activate and jump into the Hard Drive recovery mode.
  
• Well with no help from those numerous resources I tried I thought of an alternative and it lead me to my Grub4Dos USB stick. I remembered reading in depth within the tutorial about chain-loading from the command line for trial and error. Well I thank God that it came in handy for these systems that had severely damaged file systems.
  
• So in conclusion if you have identified that your hard drive or someone else's hard drive has the recovery partition still intact. Try to chain load the PBS (partition boot sector) or OS boot loader or whatever it might be called inside that specific recovery partition. Hopefully you will have the same type of luck I had. Good Luck!
  
• Below are the steps I took on each system to access these recovery partitions still intact on the HD.
  
• Keep in mind that all 3 Systems were Windows based OS's (XP, Vista, and Win7) yeah ironic isn't it? LOL!

~ RESULTS MIGHT VARY ~

1. Type the command

root (

and hit the [TAB] key which will show you the list of possible drives on the host system.

2. Once I saw the possible drives I retyped the command

root (

and added one of the possible drives it listed previously. Like for example it might list

(hd0, hd1, or hd2)

or something like that so before I hit the [TAB] key again it looked like this

root (hd1

after hitting the [TAB] key and the comma should populate to the right. Then after hitting the [TAB] key again the second time, some partitons will populate right below and it will inform you of the file systems on that specific drive and which partition is set to active. Now keep in mind if you select a drive and hit the [TAB] key twice, and nothing populates then you should assume that the initial drive only has one partition. Those were the steps I took to verify which drive was holding the recovery partition.

3. Next step was to identify the OS so I know which boot loader to chainload it was going to be either NTLDR or BOOTMGR I think. Your situation might be different of course.

4. So once I identified the bootloader to chainload along with identifying the partition that held the recovery image for that specific OS, then I set root to that partition typing this command

root (hd1,0)

and hitting the [ENTER] key. Now your working directory is root within that recovery image partition you selected.

5. You can type a

ls

command and hit [ENTER] to get a listing of all the file contents inside of the root. Its helpful to do this cause you might want to double check if you see the bootloader (NTLDR, BOOTMGR) your looking for.

6. If it is not in the root you might need to go into one of the folders in the root where its sitting at and chainload it from there. Which actually wont be hard at all, just type the same command and add the forward slash. Say for example the folder was BootLand, then it would be typed like this

root (hd1,0)/BootLand

and hit the [ENTER] key. Now you would be inside the folder of BootLand and still on the partition where the recovery image is at. If you want to check and see if the specific bootloader your looking for is in this folder then type the

ls

command again that's all.

7. If you did locate your bootloader now all you have to do is chainload the bootloader while your in that specific directory. Just type for example

chainloader /NTLDR

or

chainloader /BOOTMGR

and you should get a response from our friend Grub4Dos telling you that it will boot your specific bootloader of course.

8. Now if you have done everything properly as listed above you should be able to type

boot

and hit the [ENTER] key and successfully crank up the recovery manager for that host system to restore the factory image.


I hope this helps the community is someway or fashion, the steps in this procedure might be known to all the members and guests in the community already but if it's not then hopefully it will supply aid for those in need.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated if I did not fully elaborate in certain areas of this guide. I apologize about being a novice to this area of discussion. Hopefully in the future I get up to par with the rest of the community.

~JUST_A_NOVICE~

[sambul61]

GRUB4DOS COMMAND LINE IS A BEAST!!!!

Since I have joined this forum I got very interested in Grub4Dos, and since then I have read up on all the bells and whistles about this great universal boot loader.

................................................................................

7. If you did locate your bootloader now all you have to do is chainload the bootloader while your in that specific directory. Just type for example "chainloader /NTLDR" or "chainloader /BOOTMGR" and you should get a response from our friend Grub4Dos telling you that it will boot your specific bootloader of course.

~JUST_A_NOVICE~

May I kindly suggest to remove BOLD formatting from your whole text? Is your Tutorial the most important on this forum? Why other similar Tutorials aren't posted in bold? Not sure if its prohibited by this forum rules, but its prohibited on most web forums to make the whole post formatted in BOLD. It makes it harder to grasp the content, and find keywords leading to your text understanding. It also unfairly and most often without merit highlights a single post from other members' posts. Hope, this is not an ad.

I assume you posted a Tutorial, so why make a large part of it aligned to the post center? Again, may be not against the rules, but never recommended in Tutorial Writing Guides for the same simple reason - harder to grasp the essence, while distracted by unneeded formatting.

May I also suggest to clearly reveal the target and narrow purpose of this Tutorial (if it is) in its Title and first sentences? May be Restoring your factory OS image with Grub4DOS, if I get it right eventually? It sounds like a useful info to me, but delivered not the best way.

I posted it in support of concept to improve offered forum Tutorials via honest members' opinions and suggestions.

[Wonko the Sane]

Not sure if its prohibited by this forum rules, but its prohibited on most web forums to make the whole post formatted in BOLD...

....
May I also suggest to clearly reveal the target and purpose of this Tutorial (if it is) in its Title and first sentences?

Compare with Rules #9 and #10.


@Just_A_Novice
Though #9 is about CAPITALIZATION, it also applies conceptually to any unneeded indiscriminate uses of bold, coloured text and of text alignment.

"Normal" text, like print articles or books are left aligned AND NOT centered.

On boards, by convention when you want to post a command line, you enclose it in [ code] [ / code] tags, and the key presses are CAPITAL and enclosed in square brackets, i.e. this:

1. Type the command root ( and hit the TAB key which will show you the list of possible drives on the host system.

Should be posted as:

1. Type the command:

root (

and hit the [TAB] key which will show you the list of possible drives on the host system.

Doesn't it looks a lot more readable?

As you can see on the light blue background your bright green bold text is pretty much UNreadable.


Wonko

[juandecerro]

help me, my eyes burn!!!

[Just_A_Novice]

Thank you for the all the suggestions and feedback. I will take all of this into consideration for future postings.

[Brito]

Good initiative.

I didn't knew that we could browse folders with grub4dos. Probably this is indeed no news for a lot of folks, but your tutorial taught me that much.

Thank you.

[Just_A_Novice]

No problem at all I'm here to share information just like the rest of the community and learn along the way. Hopefully there will come a time when tutorials on Grub4Dos are posted somewhere online.

I would be the first to watch them of course lol!

[sambul61]

Thank you for the all the suggestions and feedback. I will take all of this into consideration for future postings.

May be you can ask one time permission from admin to edit your Tutorial. Usually its allowed after you made 100 posts, but your info sounds useful for many right now.

[Brito]

I agree with sambul61. There is no need to keep him unable of editing posts considering his valuable contribution.

I've promoted Just_A_Novice to the level of advanced user. This allows editing your own posts made in the past and also upload files. Rare event to see someone with just 8 posts to be promoted this soon, congratulations.

[Just_A_Novice]

Wow! Thanks a lot I am shocked by the promotion but honored as well. I'll do my best to do the turtorial over but I would prefer some help from the community if possible if time permits lol. I want to make sure I get the coding down right this time when I am making a tutorial. I want to make sure that I post it the correct way in the forum along with the rules that are assigned to the Boot Land community of course. However until then I'll be reading the rules again and making changes accordingly.

[Chaz]

Since I have joined this forum I got very interested in Grub4Dos, and since then I have read up on all the bells and whistles about this great universal boot loader.

Well since I am in the entry stages of Computer Repair down here in southern Florida where most folks don't really have a clue on how to do Preventive Maintenance on their computers they bring it to us at your local computer repair shop.

To make a long story short I came across 3 systems that needed a complete factory image restore.
I cant tell you how frustrating it is to keep on seeing a manufacturers splash screen and no recovery options listed at the bottom or within the BIOS setup. Countless efforts of Google searching trying to locate combination keys to hit prior to P.O.S.T (Power On Self Test) to activate and jump into the Hard Drive recovery mode.

Well with no help from those numerous resources I tried I thought of an alternative and it lead me to my Grub4Dos USB stick. I remembered reading in depth within the tutorial about chain-loading from the command line for trial and error. Well I thank God that it came in handy for these systems that had severely damaged file systems.

So in conclusion if you have identified that your hard drive or someone else's hard drive has the recovery partition still intact. Try to chain load the PBS (partition boot sector) or OS boot loader or whatever it might be called inside that specific recovery partition. Hopefully you will have the same type of luck I had. Good Luck!

Below are the steps I took on each system to access these recovery partitions still intact on the HD.
Keep in mind that all 3 Systems were Windows based OS's (XP, Vista, and Win7) yeah ironic isn't it? LOL!

~ RESULTS MIGHT VARY ~ ACTUAL TYPED COMMANDS ARE HIGHLIGHTED IN RED ~

1. Type the command root ( and hit the TAB key which will show you the list of possible drives on the host system.

2. Once I saw the possible drives I retyped the command root ( and added one of the possible drives it listed previously. Like for example it might list (hd0, hd1, or hd2) or something like that so before I hit the TAB key again it looked like this "root (hd1" after hitting the TAB key and comma populates. Then after hitting the TAB key again the 2nd time, some partitons will!populate right below and it will inform you of the file systems on that specific drive and which partition is set to active. Now keep in mind if you select a drive and hit the TAB key twice and nothing populates then you should assume that specific drive only has one partition. Those were the steps I took to verify which drive was holding the recovery partition.

3. Next step was to identify the OS so I know which boot loader to chainload it was going to be either NTLDR or BOOTMGR I think. Your situation might be different of course.

4. So once I identified the bootloader to chainload along with identifying the partition that held the recovery image for that specific OS, then i set root to that partition typing this command "root (hd1,0)" and hitting the ENTER key. Now your working directory is root within that recovery image partition you selected.

5. You can type a "ls" command and hit ENTER to get a listing of all the file contents inside of the root. Its helpful to do this cause you might want to double check if you see the bootloader (NTLDR, BOOTMGR) your looking for.

6. If it is not in the root you might need to go into one of the folders in the root where its sitting at and chainload it from there. Which actually wont be hard at all, just type the same command and add the forward slash. Say for example the folder was BootLand, then it would be typed like this "root (hd1,0)/BootLand" and hit ENTER. Now you would be inside the folder of BootLand and still on the partition where the recovery image is at. If you want to check and see if the specific bootloader your looking for is in this folder then type the "ls" command again that's all.

7. If you did locate your bootloader now all you have to do is chainload the bootloader while your in that specific directory. Just type for example "chainloader /NTLDR" or "chainloader /BOOTMGR" and you should get a response from our friend Grub4Dos telling you that it will boot your specific bootloader of course.

8. Now if you have done everything properly as listed above you should be able to type "boot" and hit the ENTER key and successfully crank up the recovery manager for that host system to restore the factory image.



I hope this helps the community is someway or fashion, the steps in this procedure might be known to all the members and guests in the community already but if it's not then hopefully it will supply aid for those in need.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated if I did not fully elaborate in certain areas of this guide. I apologize about being a novice to this area of discussion. Hopefully in the future I get up to par with the rest of the community.

~JUST_A_NOVICE~

[electricme]

@Just_A_Novice,

At great risk of ending up in the naughty bin, I just wanted to say a big THANKYOU for writing your procedure on the Grub4DOS.

WELL DONE SIR.

Don't worry too much about the people who are objecting regarding etikurt or spelling or shouting, not all of us are so perfect like them.

What hey old chap, youseareoneoftheverybestofpeople (gosh I 4got de spaces)

Keep up the excellent work chum.

jim

[electricme]

@ Nuno Britto,
Yes, I totally agree with you in regards to the rapid promotion of Just_A_Novice.

I am currently a member of several forums and I have never seen any member being placed so quickly so high, in this case JAN deserves this.

I'm glad to see you have your eye on the ball.

If you think my 1st post was a bit over the top, sorry mate, I have ADHD so you can remove it if you so wish, I just carn't sit by and see someone get hauled over the coals because he carn't spell or grammer is out of wack.

jim

[Wonko the Sane]

All is well that ends well.

Wonko approves of this.

Maybe, at the light of the recent developments, the nick Just_A_Novice appears a bit like an understatement, but it's nice anyway.


Wonko

[Jamal H. Naji]

Thank you Just_A_Novice, this is a good tutorial, also congratulations for the promotion. You are the second member in boot-land history to get a speedy promotion for his good work, the first one was RoyM, he was promoted to a script developer in a matter of few posts, refer to his post and promotion HERE.Thank you both again.

[shamurshamur]

Nice work.
This tutorial should have been made long time ago.Finally someone made it.
It will of immense help to new users who are just starting to learn about grub4dos.

congratulation.


@jamal
May be you can remake this tutorial with pictures. just a idea.

[possnfiffer]

Thanks for your first hand account of your GRUB experience it really is a great manager I've enjoyed using on several pc's here hope your repair shop does well for you

[Wonko the Sane]

Thanks for your first hand account of your GRUB experience it really is a great manager I've enjoyed using on several pc's here hope your repair shop does well for you

too bad this is NOT GRUB, it's grub4dos.
Or, if you prefer try:

chainloader /NTLDR

or:

chainloader /BOOTMGR

on GRUB (Legacy) or GRUB 2.




Wonko

[possnfiffer]

too bad this is NOT GRUB, it's grub4dos.
Or, if you prefer try:

chainloader /NTLDR

or:

chainloader /BOOTMGR

on GRUB (Legacy) or GRUB 2.




Wonko

Cheers lol

[Just_A_Novice]

May I kindly suggest to remove BOLD formatting from your whole text? Is your Tutorial the most important on this forum? Why other similar Tutorials aren't posted in bold? Not sure if its prohibited by this forum rules, but its prohibited on most web forums to make the whole post formatted in BOLD. It makes it harder to grasp the content, and find keywords leading to your text understanding. It also unfairly and most often without merit highlights a single post from other members' posts. Hope, this is not an ad.

I assume you posted a Tutorial, so why make a large part of it aligned to the post center? Again, may be not against the rules, but never recommended in Tutorial Writing Guides for the same simple reason - harder to grasp the essence, while distracted by unneeded formatting.

May I also suggest to clearly reveal the target and narrow purpose of this Tutorial (if it is) in its Title and first sentences? May be Restoring your factory OS image with Grub4DOS, if I get it right eventually? It sounds like a useful info to me, but delivered not the best way.

I posted it in support of concept to improve offered forum Tutorials via honest members' opinions and suggestions.

Changes were made thanks for your suggestions!

Compare with Rules #9 and #10.


@Just_A_Novice
Though #9 is about CAPITALIZATION, it also applies conceptually to any unneeded indiscriminate uses of bold, coloured text and of text alignment.

"Normal" text, like print articles or books are left aligned AND NOT centered.

On boards, by convention when you want to post a command line, you enclose it in [ code] [ / code] tags, and the key presses are CAPITAL and enclosed in square brackets, i.e. this:


Should be posted as:


Doesn't it looks a lot more readable?

As you can see on the light blue background your bright green bold text is pretty much UNreadable.


Wonko

Changes were made thanks for the suggestions.

May be you can ask one time permission from admin to edit your Tutorial. Usually its allowed after you made 100 posts, but your info sounds useful for many right now.

Glad to be of help in the community thanks, hopefully the content that I bring will be valuable to some.

@ Nuno Britto,
Yes, I totally agree with you in regards to the rapid promotion of Just_A_Novice.

I am currently a member of several forums and I have never seen any member being placed so quickly so high, in this case JAN deserves this.

I'm glad to see you have your eye on the ball.

If you think my 1st post was a bit over the top, sorry mate, I have ADHD so you can remove it if you so wish, I just carn't sit by and see someone get hauled over the coals because he carn't spell or grammer is out of wack.

jim

Lol! Yeah I know I'm not the best with spelling but I try. In January I'll be starting school hopefully my grammar gets up to par you know. My pops has me starting school to get this computer degree since I'm already fascinated with the overall operations of the PC. Meanwhile I'm at the local repair shop throughout the holidays to gain some hands on experience, which is greatly needed within this day and age I've heard.

Wonko approves of this.

Maybe, at the light of the recent developments, the nick Just_A_Novice appears a bit like an understatement, but it's nice anyway.


Wonko

Well I dont know what to say about the name. I just wanted a name that didn't throw folks off I guess. I didnt' want folks to think that I was some type of young kid thinking I know everything, I mean I still need my parents to sign permission slips for me lol. So being humble as a novice always leaves room for growth to become wiser later on down the road.

Thank you Just_A_Novice, this is a good tutorial, also congratulations for the promotion. You are the second member in boot-land history to get a speedy promotion for his good work, the first one was RoyM, he was promoted to a script developer in a matter of few posts, refer to his post and promotion HERE.Thank you both again.

Second member in Boot Land history! Wow! That's cool, I guess that means that I just have to keep good informative content coming to the community that helps everyone benefit.

Nice work.
This tutorial should have been made long time ago.Finally someone made it.
It will of immense help to new users who are just starting to learn about grub4dos.

congratulation.


@jamal
May be you can remake this tutorial with pictures. just a idea.

That's not a bad idea Jamal, as we speak I'm looking for screen capture pics to assist me with that. I think I need to get inside a virtual machine and do that. Trying to decide Qemu or VMWare or maybe Virtual Box. Whatever it might be I will update this tutorial accordingly of course. Thanks for the idea thou!

Thanks for your first hand account of your GRUB experience it really is a great manager I've enjoyed using on several pc's here hope your repair shop does well for you

Thanks! I hope it does well for me too, but my pops is telling me that PC repair is losing its value due to every "Tom, Dick, & Harry" (His specific own words) knowing how to do it. So after learning PC Repair, i'm mostly likely going to get into Network Admin. Eventually lean towards the CISCO curriculum. I'm also curious about CEH (Certified Ethical Hacking). Something similar to what he did in the military. Who knows I guess one step at a time, and Boot Land is my first step.

[Master of Disaster]

@Just_A_Novice good work..unique one..congrats for the promotion 2

@Wonko the Sane didnt u have enough from ur first stupid long reply? cant u c ur a bad infience? and some members like[sambul61 and the newly member Chaz with his first rubish post] r doing now same as u do? by ruining a good post with their lenghty ediotic replies? u can simply say those out of the subject coments on the inbox of the member..how many times u have 2 be offended by countless members on many similar stupid acts of u 2 stop such behaviour? ur realyy a hopless to b corrected case..unbelevable how annoying ur

@electricme agree with u that some members here work hardly 2 ending up beautiful and useful post and tutorials into the naughty bin by deliberatly posting unecesary lenghty stupid coments and destracting us and waisting our valuable time from the main subject.

but then why?
answer=jealousy

Edited by Master of Disaster, 06 December 2010 - 04:21 AM.

[Holmes.Sherlock]

I'd like to draw the attention to the topic title. What should it be?

Grub4Dos Command Line Is A Beast

or

Grub4Dos Command Line Is A Best

[mesrine_29]

Thank you for a tutorial, good job

[sambul61]

Master of Disaster

I know, you're extremely qualified, but learning is endless process... May I kindly suggest you to try using Opera browser? The advantage is, it has Spell Checker integrated, and it works in forum text areas, so next post you write will be easier for me to comprehend. Just a friendly hint.

Btw, did you post your own Tutorials here? I see you're suggesting to read the posts of another forum member in almost every post. I wonder, if you 2 guys have the same IP address? Drink the same coffee...

[Stratedox]

Complete guide for Grub4DOS here (Including Command line index and readme file):

http://diddy.boot-la...os/Grub4dos.htm