I Really Screwed Up

[just2good4u3434]

I installed Ubuntu about 2 months ago and couldnt be happier, but the problem is my sister and I both use the same computer and she doesnt like to use Ubuntu because shes really stupid. Anyway since I wasnt using Ubuntu and i needed the hard drive space I decided to uninstall Ubuntu. I used Partition Magic to format the partition that Ubuntu was on, and then i moved that space to another partition. I had to restart for the changes to take effect, so I restarted. I wasnt able to get anywhere after the restart. It said something like...

Loading Grub..

Error loading Grub

error 15

and thats it nothing else happened. I figured the boot loader got deleted. So i panicked a little. I decided i needed to get the boot loader back. So I spent some time reinstalling Ubuntu. Everything went fine and Grub was reinstalled. It told me to take out the linux and restart. I restarted and Grub loaded and I loaded Windows XP. I logged on to my user name and a window popped up saying that new hardware or software was installed and I had to restart for the hardware or software to work. I went to restart later and i found that nothing was loading and my system wouldnt start up. But i went to CTR ATL Delete and restarted from there. I restarted and a Grub failed to load again. Im REALLY screwed if i cant get this fixed by tonight. I cant reformat my windows partition cause i have some very important data on it. I have a windows XP cd and an Ubuntu cd. PLEASE HELP!!

I dont want Ubuntu on my system anymore, but i guess i still need a boot loader to start windoes up

Edited June 18, 2006 by just2good4u3434

[Besttechie]

Well, this should be an easy fix if you have your XP disk.

Boot to the XP disk, let it run, then choose to go into the recovery console, from the recovery console type:

fixmbr then hit enter

After it does that, type:

fixboot then hit enter

Note: it may prompt you asking are you want to do so and so, and the answer is yes.

Hopefully that will fix your boot issue and allow you to boot, then you will want to reinstall Ubuntu and have it install grub, etc. If you still want it that is or decide to try it again.

Btw, I had the same problem one day and that's what I did and it worked for me, however I recently removed Ubuntu and installed Vista beta 2 on my second hdd for now, after I'm done with that I'll probably install the new Ubuntu.

Good luck!

B

[just2good4u3434]

I cant get into the recovery because i dont have an administrator password, my account doesnt have a password so i didnt put anything in, then i put my sisters password in and it still said it was invalid we're the only 2 accounts on the computer. Is there any other way??

thanks for the help

[just2good4u3434]

I got windows to load all i need to do now in uninstall Ubuntu. Any tutorials??

[jcl]

I got windows to load all i need to do now in uninstall Ubuntu. Any tutorials??

Edited June 18, 2006 by jcl

[just2good4u3434]

I got windows to load all i need to do now in uninstall Ubuntu. Any tutorials??

Repartition or reformat the remaining Ubuntu partitions if there are any and you're done. There's no need (and no way) to uninstall as such.

Edited June 18, 2006 by just2good4u3434

[iccaros]

with out a working xp disk this is hard..

put back in the ubuntu disk

have it partition the 100 gigs to give ubuntu 8 gigs

leave the other alone

boot windowsright click my computer and go to manage

go to disk manager

you should see 2 unused partitions (XP will not reconize the linux partition)

right click the 92 gig one and format it..

it now will be useable by windows..

for fixing the MBR, barrow a disk.. or just leave it..

a hint for thoses doing dual boot.

always have Linux create a boot partition (/boot)

this way you can remove the main linux partitions or windows partition and grub will always work..

[jimras]

Just so you know.the reason for the "grub" error is that the grub loader

resides in the partition that your Ubuntu was in and when you removed

the Ubuntu install, the grub loader went away with it. Your MBR is looking

for this and it's no longer there.

Running the XP CD and doing a repair and doing "fixmbr' should have fixed

the problem if you did nothing else to it.

[TheTerrorist_75]

If you never set an Administrator password all you do is leave that box blank and press <Enter>. You will then be able to access the Recovery Console.

[shanenin]

ubuntu-6.06 is a live cd also. That can be used to repartition, or chage the ubunutu partitions to unallocated. Then windows xp can partition and format them for you.

[xxkbxx]

I ran into the exact problem a few months ago. Of course I decided to install (and uninstall because of problems) Ubuntu during the same timeframe that my mom was working on someone's wedding invitations.

What I did was reinstall GRUB (but not Ubuntu) and run a repair install on XP (after trying FIXMBR and FIXBOOT which didn't work for me for some odd reason) so the regular XP boot loader was back in business. The PC would boot into GRUB, then I would boot into Windows (I left the computer on 24/7 so my parents wouldn't get confused when the computer attempted to default boot into Linux)

Eventually I just backed up all data and reformatted the whole hard drive

[just2good4u3434]

Ok I figured out the administrator passowrd and was able to fix all my problems THANKS FOR THE HELP!