Partition change boot repair...

OK, so it may not be the most common thing you would do, but I had left an area of my hard disk empty and without partitioned so that when I had settled in, I could use it for whatever would benefit most from the space.

Now, the setup of my main boot disk was as follows:

• Partition 1 - Windows Vista C:
• Above mentioned empty space
• Partition 2 - Ubuntu Studio
• Extended Partition:
  Linux Swap Partition
  Gaming Partition G:

So, I then without a care in the world quickly added a B: for documents in the space mentioned... moved all my locations and files there... and shut down.

The fun started the next day... Of course, as I am multi-booting, I use a Linux boot manager... they just can't be beaten... GRUB being the system of choice for Ubuntu.

Now, only when the Grub menu puts out nothing but an error did I realise what I had just done... (the error didn't really help.. it was just then that I worked it out;) Linux including the Grub files, according the the hard disc, are now not on partition 2... but partition 3.

Phew.. glad I knew that... now, how to fix it.

I'll skip the things I tried with my USB live dists and the like and go straight to the solution I think:

1. Pop in your installation disk and boot to it (if you don't have it any more.. download a new one... it's Linux for goodness sake :)
2. Choose the recovery option and then open a console on the partition of your linux installation (you should know this, having just edited the partition)
3. If use an older version of grub you will first need to edit your menu.lst file to point to the correct partitions.
4. Finally, just reinstall Grub. In the following example, my linux root is sda3 and sda is the boot disk:
   sudo grub > root (hd0,2)
   > setup (hd0)
   > quit
5. Now just reboot and breath a sigh of relief :)