Hi,

I am REALLY new to linux so please be 'basic' with me...
okay, this is the problem:

I have a windows vista and windows 7 rc1 32bit dual boot on my laptops hard drive, each on a separate partition. I tried to install ubuntu 9.04 on my 500gb portable external hard drive and all went well. It installed fine but it seems to have moved the boot loader or something onto the portable hd because i can only boot if the portable hd is plugged in. If it isn't it says

"something something something" 1.5
"error 22"

All i want to do is get rid of ubuntu and be back to the normal dual boot. Is that possible to do easily?

That would be great if you can tell me how to get rid of it!!!


Thanks,

Ratman

I take it you have never had ubuntu on the internal drive?
In which case, you only really need to use windows fixboot without the external drive pugged in.

You should be able to make the external drive bootable again from the live disk by making sure that the grub bootloader is installed (IIRC) to the external drive mbr, not the internal.

BTW: that error should be:

Loading Grub stage 1.5
error 21

21 = unknown error.

Thats right. By default, Ubuntu has installed the Grub on the mbr of the drive where Ubuntu resides. You will need to reinstall grub on the internal drive.
Connect the external drive, boot Ubuntu, and type

sudo grub-install /dev/sda Assuming sda is your internal drive. After this you may need to change the menu.lst file.

Yeah, thanks to both of you

Simon Bridge, the error was "loading grub stage 1.5". Thanks

linuxlover.chaitanya, what is mbr, and what is menu.lst? sorry for being so 'new' (for want of a better word) =)

MBR.

menu.lst file is the configuration file for grub in Ubuntu.

Do i type that in terminal?

Yes, in the terminal.

i did that and pressed return, then it said:

(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb

what do i do then?

All i want to do is get rid of Ubuntu 9.04 for now without breaking my pc. Will this do it?
(ps if i sound angry i am not intentionally :-) )

If you want to get it to boot back to windows and forget ubuntu for now just unplug your external hd and boot a windows disk to repair the mbr. If this is not an option then there are places to download windows boot repair.

I recommend Super Grub for a start then you will be able to repair your boot with windows and then if you want to boot your external drive you can use the Super Grub disk to boot.

Larry

would a windows 7 disk be fine???

His bios may not boot usb devices

If you can get to terminal just type sudo grub
and hit enter and see if you get the grub prompt

grub>

If you do then type

setup (hd0)

and hit enter

That may repair it to where you can boot from your external drive but you will have to use my prior post to repair it with the drive disconnected.

Larry

I am not a windows man but would think a windows 7 disk would but it may want to wipe Vista. Sorry do not know enough about windows to advise.

btw my bios can boot usb devices i think. I have run ubuntu 9.04 persistently from a thumb drive by setting the boot order in my bios. I put usb key/drive above notebook hard drive and it went to my thumb drive.

windows 7 didn't wipe vista when i dual booted. I'll try the terminal thing.

That may be part of your problem, try and change the boot order back to your hd booting first if you can before making any changes.

If you are interested there is a way to have windows boot when your external hd is unplugged and then when you plug in your external hd grub will boot all but you have so much going now I will not get into that now.