“Error Unknown Filesystem Grub Rescue” just run Ubuntu Boot Repair

So the other day I got Linux Mint 13 installed along with Windows 7 on my Toshiba Portege.  It was working fine… until

error: unknown filesystem grub rescue >

I got this message a few days after I installed Linux Mint 13 and started up my laptop in the morning.  My Toshiba Portege would not do anything else when I turned it on besides give me this black screen with these words.  First thing I thought,”WTF does error unknown filesystem grub rescue mean?”  I then realized something was wrong with the GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) which is responsible for initially loading an operating system kernel software so you can start your Linux computer.  If you GRUB is not working, you can't use your computer to do anything.  Argh!

After I stopped freaking out I thought something went wrong when I was installing Linux Mint.  I thought I would try reinstalling to see if that would fix the GRUB issue.  I live booted via a USB drive onto Linux Mint 13 and reinstalled it in the same partition I was using before… restarted my Toshiba laptop… and… “error unknown filesystem grub rescue”  Ahhhh… what!

My next step was to check the Linux Mint internet relay chat (IRC) channel to see if anyone could help me there.  A few people offered advice like I needed a Windows 7 repair disc to fix this GRUB issue.  Thanks to Toshiba for not providing an install disc by the way and since I couldn't boot into Windows 7 to make a repair disc that wasn't going to happen.

I then went Googling which lead me Linux forums and started searching around.  I tried some of the suggestions that people had recommended while I was running Linux Mint off the USB drive.  Nothing seemed to work.  I then started my own thread to see if I could solve the problem but sometimes people on Linux forums are really annoying.  If I knew how to fix it I wouldn't be other asking, you know.

Then I found this page on Ubuntu Help and Documentation and ran the code in the terminal.

error unknown filesystem grub rescue

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

Hit Enter, then run

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

Waited for the Ubuntu Boot Repair to run, it outputted a Paste2.org URL, and then restarted my computer… voila!  I could boot into Linux Mint or Windows 7 and my GRUB boot repair problem was solved.

Sometimes Linux is a bit annoying but once you figure it out you feel great.  Just thought I would post this in case anyone runs gets the same “error unknown filesystem grub rescue” message with a dual booted computer using Linux Mint or Ubuntu.

If this post helped you let me know below, as I would be happy to hear about it.