How To Get Windows To Stop Assuming Precedence Over GRUB?

Question

I have a SATA hard drive with an MS DOS MBR partition table, an ext4 Linux-based OS, an NTFS Windows 7, and an extended partition. I was happily using my ext4 partition for quite some time, but grew anxious to return to my extensive Steam games collection. So, I then made the mistake of installing Microsoft Windows 7. Now, the system loads the MS bootloader instead of GRUB, and when I try to change the default OS, it only registers Windows as being an OS on the computer. I would hate to think that in all of their "expertise" the MS crew couldn't even write something to recognize that ext4 partitions exist. So, how can I change the main bootloader back to GRUB? I could always load both OS's with GRUB before, but now I don't know what is going on.

Answer 1

Use the tool Boot-Repair.

Boot-Repair lets you fix these issues with a simple click, which (generally reinstalls GRUB and) restores access to the operating systems you had installed before the issue.

The easiest way to use Boot-Repair is to burn one of the following disks and boot on it.

1. Boot-Repair-Disk is a CD starting Boot-Repair automatically.
2. Boot-Repair is also included in Linux-Secure-Remix.

Remark : you can also install the ISO on a live-USB (eg via UnetBootin or LiliUSB or Universal USB Installer).

Video demonstrating the use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiJokVR9YaY

SourceForge page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/boot-repair/

Answer 2

Easiest option, in my opinion, would be to boot a live Linux disc (Ubuntu may be the easiest) and run Boot-repair.

As a summary:

Install Boot-Repair in Ubuntu

• boot your computer on a Ubuntu live-CD or live-USB.

• choose "Try Ubuntu"

• connect internet

• open a new Terminal, then type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update

• Press Enter.

• Then type:

sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && (boot-repair &)

• Press Enter