super grub should work on a bootable usb too:
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wizard-step-put-super-grub2-disk-into-an-usb-pendrive/

On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 11:49 AM, Michael <bmike1@gmail.com> wrote:

no cd drive.... this would be SOOOO much easier if it did!

On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 2:48 PM, Todd Millecam <tyggna@gmail.com> wrote:

get a super grub cd and have it repair and reinstall grub.

Grub has two parts, it's bootsector/EFI area and it's configs.  The configs exist on a regular drive partition and handle all the multi-boot stuff.  The bootsector / EFI stuff really only knows how to point to drives.

You could probably type in something along the lines of:

root (hd0)

chainloader +1

boot

and have it get you into windows, because that's all you're missing is the conf file telling grub that's a valid boot directive.

On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 11:44 AM, Michael <bmike1@gmail.com> wrote:

what it does is opens a "minimal BASH-like line editing" thing with:

     grub> 

being the first line when I don't have the external drive plugged in. I typed in 'ls' and the response (when the thumb drive is inserted) was:

     (hd0) (hd0,msdos) (hd1) (hd1,gpt4) (hd1,gpt3) (hd1,gpt2) (hd1,gpt1) 

without the thumb drive it is:

     (hd0)  (hd1) (hd1,gpt4) (hd1,gpt3) (hd1,gpt2) (hd1,gpt1) error: failure\

          reading sector 0x3aefff0  from `hd0' 

     error: failure reading sector 0x3aeff80  from `hd0'

     error: failure reading sector 0x0 from `hd0'

 So how can I install  grub where it belongs in hd0?

On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 2:01 PM, Todd Millecam <tyggna@gmail.com> wrote:

Check your bios boot order and ensure the proper hard drive is set first.  It's the same as hitting f12 and selecting one, only in your bios settings you can set the default.

On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 10:17 AM, Michael <bmike1@gmail.com> wrote:

Okay..... I can still boot into windows. I have to press f12 and load it from that menu but it will load. Any way I can restore the laptop to the way it was when I first got it and then I'll put 17.3 on. Any comments on what I can do?

On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 1:05 PM, Michael <bmike1@gmail.com> wrote:

I messed up. I installed mint18 on my external drive but mint18 is not quite ready for prime time so I figured I would put mint 17.3 on. Well, durring installation I told it to put grub on the external drive. now I can't boot unless the external drive is plugged in. I need the port the external is plugged into because that is the only USB port it will boot from and I need that port  for the thumb drive. So  my question is how do I install grub to sda1......

Mint won't boot now! How do I RESTORE WINDOWS SO i CAN DO THIS AGAIN?

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