BleepingComputer.com: Dual Boot Ubuntu/Win 7 Issues

So, here's the deal. I had Vista/Ubuntu dual booted and I decided to do a fresh Win 7 install over the Vista Partition. I did custom install and I'm quite sure I chose the the Windows Vista partition to install over. Well, everything went fine and Win 7 is running OK, but how do I get into Ubuntu now? It used to give me a choice upon booting up? Did Windows wipe my entire drive?

I'm confused because this is a 250GB hard drive, and it's showing 225GB on the C drive. I believe my Ubuntu partition was only about 20GB, but idk if 5GB leaves enough room for the Win 7 OS. Probably not, huh?

The good news is I still have the Windows.old files, so from what I read I can restore. Not to mention that the Ubuntu partition didn't really have anything too important on it, so if that's lost well, sucks, but OK. Music mostly, everything important went into Dropbox.

So, can someone tell me what happened here, and if there's any way to fix it, or get those files from the Ubuntu partition back? Thanks.

You may get away with just reinstalling grub. Some info on how to do that in links below.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
COPIED FROM LINK ABOVE:
Normally when Windows is installed after Ubuntu the "Master Boot Record", MBR, will be overwritten. You can bootup off a LiveCD and repair the MBR. However, there are 2 different approaches:

Recovering GRUB after reinstalling Windows

There are also these help guides

*

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Recoverin...stallingWindows
*

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Rei...20from%20LiveCD

Which should help with any install of Ubuntu now. For some simple cases the advice below might help

Ubuntu 10.04 or 9.10

Sorry, definitely use this guide

*

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Rei...20from%20LiveCD

Thanks for those links. Looks like that last one is the way to go. I realized I can check out my partitions through Disk Management and it seems that the Ubuntu partition is still there. I acutally have a 300GB hard drive, with 60 allocated to Ubuntu. It's been a while since I set this up, so I'm a bit clueless. Plus it's the first and only time I've done it.

My issue now is how do I know what the name of the Ubuntu partition is? It's showing up as blank under Disk Managment.


It seems I need to know that to proceed. I'm going to give it a try and see what happens anyway.

That worked great, thanks for the help. I used method 2 with a live CD and it went smoothly. Thanks again.

another thing you may want to consider, is using a program called "remastersys". it should be in your synaptic.

remastersys makes an install cd of the ubuntu partition at the current state. lets say that you downloaded all your favorite programs and codecs and customized ubuntu just the way you like it. at that point, use remastersys and make a disk. when you reinstall with that disk, it will already contain your programs and codecs. i've use it on dual-boot as well. it replaces grub and installs like an install cd. it doesn't harm windows, but you still need to be careful, just like a regular live cd.

the only thing you have to remember about remastersys is, if you make the cd on one computer, it may not install properly on another computer because of the difference in drivers.