Uninstalling Ubuntu from MSI Wind U100 lead to grub loader error 22 + MBR missing

akturus · 04-04-2010, 11:01 PM

Hi guys.

I'm not completely sure if this is the first time a noob (ie.me) screwing up a perfectly fine Netbook with idiocy. But here it goes..

I've recently uninstalled the ubuntu from my MSI Wind U100 Netbook;
The way I did it was by using the gparted from live"CD" of the ubuntu(which really wasn't a cd but a USB boot). I basically deleted all the linux partition from the drive (an Ubuntu partition and another linux related partition that seemed unrelated in running XP)

problem rose immediately after rebooting the system.

I was encountered with grub loader error 22.

after few minutes of googling, it seemed like grub was residing somewhere inside my hard drive and was being loaded first to find ubuntu that was no longer there.

My first attempt was to reinstall ubuntu using the live"CD" (again, a USB bootable as I have no external CDROM drive for my netbook)

This successfully bypassed the grub loader error and encountered another error: "MBR is missing" error

after hrs of googling/downloading, I've tried (in order to fix my mbr missing):
**Note that my MSI Wind U100 has no external CD-ROM drive

0. Pressing the F3 button on startup <- there used to be a screen which told me to "press F3" to reset the netbook back to factory condition. The screen no longer is there and was replaced by grub error 22. (I tried F3 anyway - it did not work)

1. Creating DOS (freeDOS) USB bootable <- I made the USB via using a program called BootMyISO with ISO image of the freeDOS (full version). It succeeded in booting the DOS but was not able to see the troubled HDD (the only drive I could see was "C:/" - the USB drive label NOT the HDD label): I've tried typing both fixmbr and fdisk /mbr but it did not have any effect on the problem.

2. Creating DOS (Win98 safe mode by following this instruction) USB bootable <- succeeded in booting but again, the C:/ was the USB drive not the hard drive. (fixmbr fdisk /mbr had no effect again)

3. Taking out the HDD from MSI Wind U100 and shoving it into my Acer 5536G and then using Windows XP CD to reinstall xp <- the xp managed to load itself (ie. blue screen of loading) and then the blue screen of death saying "blah blah blah memory is not 0x0000007...blah" (I had no idea what it said but I'm assuming it was trying to copy xp stuff to my hard drive and got confused somehow)

4. Using Windows XP CD to recover (using Acer from attempt 3) <- I've pressed F(something) to initiate the recovery option once the Windows XP CD was booted. The Windows XP CD then asked me to insert "recovery disk to A:/" which I did not have.

5. Using Windows 7 DVD to recover (Using Acer from attempt 3) <- the recovery function asked me to select the drive to recover. Except there was no partition appearing on the screen. I was asked to select the driver (of the HDD) to find the partition but I did not know which driver to select so I've aborted this attempt.

6. Using Super Grub Disk to recover Grub using USB <- I've made the SGD
from USB using Unetbootin with SGD ISO file. It no longer generated grub error 22 nor the mbr missing error but ""partition signature != 55AA" error popped up...

I did NOT try installing Windows 7 using Acer (with my MSI HDD inside) as I thought it may result in more complexion then it has now.

Now that I'm out of stamina and motivation to keep going... I humbly ask the guidance from above... Any ideas or (even better) solution will be so much appreciated..

Thank you in advance (and my apologies if my English weren't fluent)

vigi · 04-05-2010, 02:40 AM

If your target is to get windows access again-I would suggest getting a copy of puppy linux on a USB stick and using it as a service system. It has a feature to reinstall grub and pickup any operating systems on the drive. You have tried everything else I would recommend.
Puppy will give you access to your files on your HD, if nothing else. It works well on my toshiba netbook.

syg00 · 04-05-2010, 03:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by akturus

I'm not completely sure if this is the first time a noob (ie.me) screwing up a perfectly fine Netbook with idiocy.

It may be your first episode, but it is unlikely you are the first to screw this up.

Sounds like MSI has a "doctored" BIOS.
As per @vigi, I reckon you seem to have made a pretty reasonable attempt at resolving this.
#6 is a bit of a worry. I might be inclined to stick the disk in a Linux box and use fdisk to delete everything and write the partition table back. That will at least force the signature to get written back.
Odd, very odd, but I've not looked at a wind.

akturus · 04-05-2010, 03:49 AM

Thanks vigi, I'll give puppy linux a go... fingers crossed

Karl Godt · 04-05-2010, 06:39 AM

I also have acer laptop + acerExtensa5230E + installed 2 versions of SuSE 11 and crunchbang 8.10.01 from live-DVD to a partitioned 16GB-Stick + everything worked fine while installation-process + first reboot only one SuSE had X11server-crash at normal mode (no key worked except Cntr+Alt+Del) + failsafe worked + SuSE Grub worked fine the first time in my life + err21 is at my Grub : Stick is missing + err22 another unknown device is connected (second Stick) + err25 I had also but until now I do not know what that means + + + after halt the computer was not able to be started for hours + rebooting vista fixed that + my acer is partitioned by acer part0=PQService10GB + part1=WindowsC:\70GB + part2=WindowsD:\70GB + SuSE Grub showed part1 and 2 + Crunchbang8.10.01(told to be a Ubuntu-kind) Bootloader was also ok but just showed two times Windows Vista/Longhorn without any further explanation + I thought the first one would be C:\ but it is seemingly the PQService + I pressed that and thought my system crashed + acer recovery showed up left me only two choices : Backup or New Installation + I had no backup and choosed the new Installation + after reboot it was the same so I choosed D-Patition + after that reboot I tried the second Windows-Vista/Longhorn-"Button" and than the setup of windows performed like the first time I started the computer after having it at home + then I looked inside the filebrowser and I was at C:\-partition +
acer OEM new installation did not create a new MBR + #!!# + Cruchbang Grub still resides at MBR +
I was not at Internet with acer after this new installation + I halted/shutdowned windows + now I can not start laptop also + so it seems not to be done by Linux only +
at the moment I am here with my asus 1005 HAG netbook win7starter + this one is partitioned p0=C:\80GB p1=D:\60GB p2=PQService10GB p3=15MB(p3 I guess for preventing Linux-Installation) +
googleyabinged acer laptop does not start + found www.ozzu.com + 9 pages about acer-""victims"" + opend laptop but until now it is so thight at the back-side that I only could lift 3 sides a little + can not reach battery to reset bios/cmos + tried also a tip by www.TechSpot emptying condensators by pressing start for 30 seconds after of course disconnecting power-cable and the rechargeable battery + that did not help + I did not pressed it for several minutes or hours + battery is loading, green light is shining + when I pressed Start-Button 5 times really fast the battery-led blinks 5 times yellow + I do not know what this means + looks like that I never shutdown acer if it starts again + I own it just since 11th of February this year + +++ best wishes for success !!!
+++ all the best !!!
+++ I really would like to hear how you manage it the next days
+++ I know it is no fun telling bad news

akturus · 04-05-2010, 04:20 PM

The puppy linux seems to work (it boots up from USB without grub/mbr complaints... YAY

)

I saw a console command that can restore grub somewhere in the web D: - guess I will be googling most of the morning... I've tried this method from ubuntu forum but it does not seem to work... will google a bit more and update as I go...

Again, thanks a lot vigi. puppy was a very good starting point

akturus · 04-05-2010, 06:14 PM

Okay, I've partially solved the problem...

I wasn't quite sure if it was okay for me to touch on grub config in the puppy linux soooo..

I've firstly installed puppy linux (in hope that it will magically solve the grub+mbr problem - I've selected mbr.bin while installing the puppy linux) <- did not choose bootstrap for mbr as I wasn't sure what it was.

After installing puppy, I've set the boot flag for the recovery partition (by going into the puppy linux via usb liveCD) and reinstalled XP on another partition. Then I rebooted using puppy again to set the boot flag on the reinstalled xp partition (so the netbook boots into xp)

This seemed to have made netbook at least functional for XP. (but I get no choice in which partition to boot from - ie. I cannot select recovery partition in bootup)

Now I'm going to install ubuntu netbook remix using the wubi installer; hopefully it will magically bring back the grub with choices so I can have duel/triple/quadruple(including puppy + recovery) option on the boot.

It's nowhere near the word elegant but it seems very promising.. so why not

Again, thank you all for the suggestions and advices. You guys rock

PS. Karl, you could try what vigi suggested (the Puppy Linux) to get your Acer running <- broadens so much options when you are trying to fix a laptop that boot in comparison to a laptop that doesn't

vigi · 04-05-2010, 11:54 PM

For multi-booting you may consider using legacy grub on it's own 100MB partition as a boot loader to prevent having to keep installing grub to the MBR. This way when you install another OS you have to edit grub manually-however if it does not work your other systems still boot. Go the Grub website for info.

I have slackware13 as my work system on a toshiba NB100 netbook, along with the original windows XP and Ubuntu and Kubuntu netbook versions just for fun.

Karl Godt · 04-09-2010, 03:33 PM

short reply
Thanks for suggesting PUPPY
I found a mac_pup_412 at my liveCD
It is possible to access /boot/GRUB/menue.lstat my crunchbang partition
-------------------------------------------(fedora10 live was not able to access it)
I opened that file with Geany-editor
I could change timeout to my preferred 24 seconds
I also put a # before PQSERVICE and "normal" choice (# SUSE (#SUSE is no comment !))
-----------------It´s because only PossibleSafestMode works with kern.2.6.27...
Also changed menue order by copy/cut`n`paste
The PUPPY-installer is somewhat new to me
Until now it had something written to the third 4.5GB partition of this SanDisk Cruzer 16GB PenDrive.
I put a flag to sdb3 with the program Gparted but it did not boot until now
I will try the next days to burn iso to CD
There is an interessting Thread here :http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...2/#post3929308
Best enjoyments ...!

vigi · 04-12-2010, 03:44 AM

Most live CD distros are designed to enable you to test the Distribution and prevent you from writing to your HDD. Puppy-linux is design to use in live mode-from your ram, and gives you full administration power in Root mode - so it is excellent for servicing your system as well as being a terrific OS. The other terrific external (cd/usb) service aid is parted-magic.. both have a mass of programmes and power to enable you to fix, edit or completely stuff up your system.

Karl Godt · 04-15-2010, 11:49 AM

Thanks for PUPPY !

It took me some time to find out about burning ISO to CD .
I have read some HTML-Pages and thought it would be pretty easy .
I thought to put a 3,5" vmlinuz-file to the beginning of a formatted or "master"-burned CD would do it .
ISO means to me now something like compressing DATA like at ".zip/.tar/.rar -files" . ISO -files normally have a special icon .
Only special programs like "CDBurnerXP" can "unzip" that .iso -file to a bootable CD and "Free Create-Burn ISO Image" might perhaps compress the needed files and folders to one ".iso"-file that can be stored and copied many times on the harddisk for further purpose .

By this way I have now installed crunch8.10.02.ext2, .SWAP, PUPPY.ext4 and DamnSmall-Linux4.4.1 to the old 266Mhz 256MB 4GB Quantum Bigfoot -PC.

Puppy is a little bit confusing to use but I need it because of authority/root -problems with crunch
and because of GRUB!

Lilo at DamnS 4.4.1 failed also but I got this OS-Partition bootable by writing into the famed "boot/grub/menu.lst" with the help of course from PUPPY!
At the moment I am at Internet at PUPPY -liveCD !
SeaMonkey Browser and so on !
It was confusing to create the internet connection by BB but with the help of the magazine I mentioned at the thread "UMTS-STICK" I finally made it !

Please excuse that I have no steady server running due to cable-cut somewhere between my apartment and the cellar .

And it was now the second time I had to keep Google-search running at the browser while dialing up to my provider to keep the gate open . Sometimes this is not necessary and sometimes it is (half and half by now).

Perhaps I have to install Puppy new on ext2 because ext4 is not supported by these other Linux-OS I am testing at the moment .

Despite of the "Childish but Beautiful" -Desktop-Layout : Puppy works really fine !
But grubconfig does not seem to be the strenght of Puppy at the moment also .

Now it is Error 15 : File Not Found . The next step I think is to change the definition root=/dev/hda3 to the Puppy-Preferred root=/dev/sda3 at crunch /boot/grub/menu.lst .
If this does not help I will format the Puppy-Partition again but this time to ext2 if the cause would be the case that my grub hasn't any ext4-support .
I think I could have answered privately but because of GRUB I did it here .
Have a nice time !

ps.: I quit installing Linux on USB-Drive because it occured now several times that the mouse disconnected itself all of a sudden without any remarkable causes . The tightness of the USB-Fittings seem to be not that good !

Karl Godt · 04-17-2010, 06:37 AM

First : Installing Puppy on ext2-filesystem did it !

But I did a complete new-install of crunch8.04.02LITE and discovered the #!8.04.02standard again .
Both Versions do not have the Binary-Program nm-connection-editor (found f.ex. at /usr/bin/) .
And the standards do not free the CD-Drive even if there is more than 100MB of RAM free .
!#8.04.02 could not access the Harddrive-Partitions but !#8.10.02 could .
So I installed !#8.10.02standard now on ext3 and now it is in that way stable that I can POWEROFF the computer and it re-starts up without system-crash .
The "root"-theme now seems to be o.k. because I did a full user setup immediately with creating root, admin and 2 user -accounts .
when your're occupied 7 days with installing an OS you simply do not want to do any ADMINISTATIVE-PASSWORD sudo passwd karlsudo passwd root-confusions. The MainMenu>System>Users/Group worked fine and also the MainMenu>System>Login setup where root has to be enabled, the Minimal UID downed from 1000 to 0, allowance set for "local system administrator" and I disabled "all users from /etc/passwd but added these 4 manually
The root-prompt at the end of failsafe-startup now also works correctly and fsck .
I am now visiting with Firefox-3.0.5 .

The most crazy appearance was that : after I was here with SeaMonkey my monthlyLoad was reduced from 3.8GB to 1.8GB (5GB-Flat). Unbelievable to me ...

My "Mobile-Tower"-System now : /dev/sda1 ext3 size2.80GiB used2.06GiB !#8.10.02standard, /dev/sda2 linux-swap 415.74MiB, /dev/sda3 ext2 size549.10MiB used310.42MiB PUPPY-4.3.1 and /dev/sda4 ext2 size298.08MiB used130.02MiB DSL-4.4.1

And this is the !#-installer autogenerated Grub-Menu :

Code:

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
#            grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
#            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
#            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default		0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout		10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line)  and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
#      password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title		Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root		(hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader	+1
#
# title		Linux
# root		(hd0,1)
# kernel	/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=69cb0650-8a55-4187-aea9-d75f2bad591f ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=69cb0650-8a55-4187-aea9-d75f2bad591f

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
##      alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
##      lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
##      lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
##      altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
##      howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
##      memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title		Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-9-generic
uuid		69cb0650-8a55-4187-aea9-d75f2bad591f
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-9-generic root=UUID=69cb0650-8a55-4187-aea9-d75f2bad591f ro quiet splash 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-9-generic
quiet

title		Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-9-generic (recovery mode)
uuid		69cb0650-8a55-4187-aea9-d75f2bad591f
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-9-generic root=UUID=69cb0650-8a55-4187-aea9-d75f2bad591f ro  single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-9-generic

title		Ubuntu 8.10, memtest86+
uuid		69cb0650-8a55-4187-aea9-d75f2bad591f
kernel		/boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title		Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda3.
title		unknown Linux distribution (on /dev/sda3)
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda3 
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda3.
title		unknown Linux distribution (on /dev/sda3)
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda3 
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda4.
title		DSL (on /dev/sda4)
root		(hd0,3)
kernel		/boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda4 quiet vga=normal noacpi noapm nodma noscsi frugal 
initrd		/boot/minirt24.gz
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda4.
title		DSL fb800x600 (on /dev/sda4)
root		(hd0,3)
kernel		/boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda4 quiet vga=788 noacpi noapm nodma noscsi frugal 
initrd		/boot/minirt24.gz
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda4.
title		DSL fb1024x768 (on /dev/sda4)
root		(hd0,3)
kernel		/boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda4 quiet vga=791 noacpi noapm nodma noscsi frugal 
initrd		/boot/minirt24.gz
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda4.
title		DSL fb1280x1024 (on /dev/sda4)
root		(hd0,3)
kernel		/boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda4 quiet vga=794 noacpi noapm nodma noscsi frugal 
initrd		/boot/minirt24.gz
savedefault
boot

And two funny things to mention:
The !#8.04.02Lite-Installer Grub-Menu wrote for DSL :
title ....DSL...(on /dev/sda4
root .....(hd0,3)
kernel .../boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 ....

And when I typed at Grub-Prompt at Computer-Start
grub> find /boot/PressTAB-Key
a minirt24.gz does not show up ... because there is none --

!

And nevertheless : How does your Installation perform now, dear arkturus ?
It is now nearly a half month gone by now .
I am interested in astronomy and use programs like Kstars, xephem and Stellarium .