How can I boot into Ubuntu where grub was removed?

Question

Here's my situation:

I installed Ubuntu on my work laptop on a partition before IT implemented whole hard drive encryption via bitlocker. I had to do some quick work when IT announced they were using bitlocker because GRUB was causing problems. In order to fix the issue, I removed grub and reinstalled the windows boot loader.

Problem:

EDIT: I can't simply re-install GRUB because it would most likely lock me out of my windows partition.

I can't figure out how to boot back into Ubuntu now that GRUB is gone. I know that the Ubuntu partition is not encrypted, because I saw it when I booted from a live USB.

Ideally I would like to have a USB boot option to select Ubuntu instead of overwriting anything.

So what can I do here?

Answer 1

Well I haven't tried this personally but have you tried looking into "msconfig" from windows, and setting your Ubuntu partition to default under the boot tab?

Answer 2

The Microsoft website suggests a few different methods of setting up the environment that you have. It might be worth removing Ubuntu and reinstalling it using method 2 if possible (replace R2 with Ubuntu). If you don't have admin access in Windows, that puts a wrench in the whole situation since you might not be able to partition the drive, or install the .vhd to a new drive. Additionally it says to turn on bitlocker after the second OS is installed.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/9528.how-to-multiboot-with-bitlocker-tpm-and-a-non-windows-os.aspx

If you don't have admin access, and Windows with Bitlocker doesn't work with Grub, I don't see a solution to your problem. It might be worth asking your IT department if it's possible, or if they could setup dual boot for you.