haertig |
01-07-2014 01:49 PM |
This is one reason I still maintain a seperate boot partition. I don't want booting to be dependant on any particular operating system being installed (i.e., I don't want the boot configuration files to be present on a partition I may delete at some later date).
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Originally when you had only Windows on your computer, Windows installed it's bootloader into track0. And the Windows bootloader jumped to the Windows partition to pick up the rest of it's executables and configuration.
Then you installed Linux. Linux overwrote the Windows bootloader in track0 with it's own GRUB bootloader. That new GRUB bootloader then jumped to your Linux partition to pick up more executables and it's configuration. One part of the GRUB configuration was to re-jump over to the Windows boot files in the Windows partition. This is called "chainloading". So in order to boot Windows, you were dependant on three things: (1) Part of GRUB installed in track0, (2) The rest of GRUB, including it's config files, installed on the Linux partition, and (3) The "second half" of the Windows bootloader installed on the Windows partition. When you deleted that Linux partition, you wiped out (2), which effectively stopped your computer from booting anything.
So what you have now is part of the GRUB bootloader installed in track0 of your hard disk. That part of GRUB is attempting to load additional GRUB executables, and config files, from that partition you deleted. But it can't, because you deleted that partition. This is easy to repair, and others have already given you recommendations on how to do the repair. But it helps to know what happened. Then it's easier to understand the various ways you can repair it.
One way is to install Ubuntu as you plan, and that will reinstall GRUB and it's config files in it's Linux partition. The GRUB re-installation will automatically detect that you have Windows installed, and create a Windows boot choice for you. And all will be good again (until you delete the Ubuntu partition, and then the problems will reappear). Another way to fix this is to have Windows replace the GRUB bootloader in track0 with it's original Windows bootloader (the one that was overwritten by GRUB). I am not overly familiar with Windows these days, but I think they call this "repair Windows installation" and you can accomplish it by booting with your original Windows installation disks. You would take this path for repair if you no longer wanted Linux and wanted to return to a Windows-only computer. Complicating this repair path slightly may be the fact that you do not have any Windows installation disks. Your computer probably came preloaded with Windows and you did not get any installation disks. But usually they provide some "recovery disk". If not, you need someone more Windows-savvy than I am to direct you how to repair a Windows bootloader without any Windows installation disks. I'm sure it is possible - I just don't know how myself.
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