Grub error
 

I have windows vista. i tried installed linux-ubuntu 9.10 but not knowing after a point on how to proceed further, i quit half-way. so my partition (14 gb)remained wasted. i tried installing again in a new partition and got it done. from my newly installed lunux, i tried to delete that 14gb partition. and now when i restart my laptop, i get this error :

GRUB loading.
error: unknown filesystem
grub rescue>

i would like to know what exactly has happened and how do i get this resolved. please help. thank you!

I suspected something like this happened.

You had Vista installed on the first partition. You tried to install Ubuntu and created a second partition. That failed. You tried again and created a third partition in the process. That succeeded. Now grub expects to find Ubuntu in the third partition.

Then yuo deleted the second partition (the failed install). Now Ubuntu is in the second partition, and grub is looking for it in a non-existing third partition.

In your grub configuration file which is located in /boot/grub, the config shows grub in (hd0,3 for grub 2) and in (hd0,2 for the legacy grub installation).

Boot your Ubuntu install cd as a liveCD, Mount the Ubuntu partition and edit that config file to reduce the hd0,X number by 1.

Grub should work then.

I believe you can also issue the command from terminal on your live cd

sudo update-grub

bigrigdriver is right and you should check you hd because you may have ended up with an unused partition which will cost you hd space.

I should also have suggested that you run "sudo fdisk -l" in a console which should show whether or not you have two used partitions separated by unused disk space.