Hey guys. I recently attempted to install Linux to see what the fuss was about. But then I got distracted and never got back to it(mostly because I couldn't get my network card to work). So I went back to Windows.

Earlier in the week, I was running out of harddrive space, and Linux was taking a sixth of it, and I just couldn't have that when I'm running so low. So, I repartitioned the drive without uninstalling Linux.

Seems like it's a big mistake.

Now I've got information on my E: drive that I don't want to lose and everytime my computer starts, it goes to a Grub initialization(I'm assuming the screen which lets you choose what boot you wish to go to) and gives me a Grub 17 error.

I really don't want to re-install Linux... is there any way to get into Dos and change things back to the way they were? How does the Linux booting screen affect things on my windows styled boot.ini file? Is there a way I can get to Dos even without going through the Grub? It's the second screen after my memory tester, and no matter what device I boot from(beyond my cd drive)... it seems it's to no avail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I really only deleted Linux because it's file format wasn't compatable with Windows... which, c'mon. Why would you guys do that :-)

Boot from your Windows install CD, exit to a console and issue the FIXMBR (or FIXBOOT?) command to rewrite the Windows bootloader to the MBR.

Basically, you deleted the secondary boot files for grub. As the previous poster said, just reboot with your XP disk and type fixmbr (or a Win95/98/ME boot disk and type fdisk /mbr)The linux file format is open and Microsoft is free to implement drivers if it so desired. The NTFS file format is closed and the only drivers have been reverse engineered. I hear they are loads better than they used to be and the risk of data loss is much less. Still the generally recommended approach is to have a shared FAT32 partitions since that can easily be read/written by both XP and linux.

I'm a film major though, so I create a lot of various dvd images, which are over 4 gigs in file size and incompatable with FAT32.

That being said, I'll have to look into finding drivers for Windows, or such and so forth. I guess my question should be "Why would Windows do that," but then I have my answer and my reason for wanting to switch. It's just way more complicated to me than I originally imagined. I just haven't cracked the code so to say.

But according to the first poster, I'm supposed to insert my XP install cd and exit to a console. But I'm not sure what the command is to exit. When I insert the cd, I get an XP image screen, but then it immediately goes back to Grub, not even allowing me to install... so... I'm gonna go and try to hold F8 and F10. If I'm wrong on the command, feel free to throw me the right one.

I don't have a recovery CD. I just have an install cd. So off I go to the other computer for a few.

Thanks for the thoughts from the both of ya.

Boot the install CD, then be ready to hit the "R" key as the message says.
Gets you into recovery console, then fixmbr.

I couldn't remember this site cuz it was being used on a different computer, but I just wanted to come back and thank you guys. Worked like a charm. I'll still be looking into linux, but I think I need a larger harddrive first, cuz I'd only want to run it dual-ly with Windows at this point.

Once again, thanks.