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It is very common for multi-system computers to use the GRUB bootloader or its big brother GRUB2. And it often happens that experimenting with the bootloader or installing another operating system on a PC knocks down the GRUB / GRUB2 settings or, even worse, completely removes it. In this article, we will look at one of the cures for recovering the GRUB or GRUB2 bootloader – this is the Rescatux recovery disk. You can also reset your Windows password with Rescatux and much more.

What is Rescatux?

Rescatux is a recovery disk image (Live CD With linux), distributed free of charge, which contains tools for administering and restoring operating systems, disks, bootloader GRUB/GRUB2. The software is preinstalled on the disk. Rescappwhich provides you with a convenient list of the main tools in one window.

Official page Rescatux is located here. Download the latest stable version Rescatux You can visit the official website here, and the beta version here.

In addition to a fully functional recovery disk Rescatux (about 400 MB in size), the developers offer a stripped-down version of the recovery disk only for working with the bootloader GRUB or GRUB2which is called Super Grub2 Disk (about 12 MB in size).

Page Super Grub2 Disk is located here. stable version Super Grub2 Disk can be downloaded here, and beta releases – here.

Creating a Rescatux Recovery Disk

To create a recovery disk, you need to download ISO image Rescatux or Super Grub2 Disk. Write this image to CD (for example, using a free program CDBurnerXP in Windows) or USB (for example, using a free program UNetbootin). How to create an installation flash drive with an image file on hand using the program UNetbootin was described in our article “Installing Android on a netbook or computer” in the part “Create an Android installation flash drive“.

Booting the computer from the Rescatux recovery disk

After creating a recovery disk, insert it into your computer, enable BIOS to boot from this disk, and boot your computer.

On the first screen you’ll see, you’ll be able to choose the boot option: 32-bit computer, 64-bit computer, or auto-detect. Here you can only download Super Grub2 Disk, which was mentioned above. To download, leave the first item – Rescatux autodetect.

Working with the Rescatux Recovery Disk

After loading you will see the desktop linux and program window Rescapp. In a programme Rescapp you can see buttons for navigating the thematic sections of the recovery disk.

Button “MAIN MENU”, of course, returns you to this start screen of the program, the plus buttons open the corresponding sections. In a programme Rescapp We may be interested in the following sections:

– Support (+) – support and help section;
– Grub (+) – section for working with the bootloader GRUB or GRUB2 (recovery GRUB and config update GRUBin addition, you can always edit configuration files using a text editor);
– FileSystem (+) – a section for working with the file system (here only checking the file system, but from the operating system menu you can run the program GPartedwhich you can read about in our article “GParted Logical Disk Editor”, see picture).

– Password (+) – section for working with passwords;
– Windows (+) – section for working with Windows OS.

When you open a particular utility at the bottom of the window, the corresponding help is immediately displayed.

Restoring the GRUB bootloader

Actually, everything is very clear here. At your discretion, two tools in the section Grub (+), which was mentioned above. You can try to recover GRUB or update config GRUB. If the utilities did not help you, then you will probably have to reinstall GRUB and configure it again (we will not consider this process here).

Also don’t forget to edit the config GRUB you can use a text editor, or you can use the utility Super Grub2 Disk.

Reset Windows password

Here, too, everything is very clear. After launching the utility, you will see a prompt to select the drive and user for which you want to reset the password. True, there is a problem with Russian letters: usernames written in Cyrillic are displayed in krakozyabry, see the picture. So, if you could not identify the desired user, and you need to reset the password, you will have to look for another tool to reset the password.

The result of using the Rescatux recovery disk

So, let’s summarize the use of the recovery disk Rescatux. I tried to restore it GRUBbut the utility did not see GRUB generally. Although I was able to open and fix the config file menu.lst. Password in Windows XP dropped successfully. In general, try, use and do not forget to make backups.