If all you want is to get vista back boot up from Vista Installation DVD and select Repair Your Computer option (its below Install Icon). Select Windows Vista -- Command Prompt.
Execute this at command prompt:

bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot

If you don't have the installation DVD for vista, you could use a program called EasyBCD to modify your bootloader. Download page:

http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

I'd recommend reading the instructions/how-to at this page:

http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBC...r+with+EasyBCD

I've read that people have success with these options but, never having used vista, I can't speak from experience.

i did, it is now booting:

usb floppy drive
notebook hard drive
internal cd/dvd rom
usb key/hard drive
usb cd/dvd rom

btw the error came up again and it is error 22, sorry

YES!! That is exactly what i tried to do, but failed miserably!!! When/if i fix this current problem, could you tell me how?

I have a feeling that if when i was installing Ubuntu, when i went to advanced options there was a checkbox to not install the GRUB boot loader. Would that have helped?

I don't have Vista disk, it was pre installed. Sorry

Seems like conflicting statements above? You did what? What is now booting?

Error 22 is No Such Partition so you have the bootloader pointing to the wrong partition.

You understand, as pointed out in an earlier post, that you have Ubuntu files on your external and the stage1 Grub bootloader file on the mbr of your internal disk. So, when you remove the external, the majority of files needed to boot Grub are not there.

Did you try the EasyBCD program? Did you try the commands I suggested earlier with your win 7 disk. See if you have those options. I don't use it and don't know if it would work but might be worth a try.

What are you able to boot now, if anything? When do you get the error 22, trying to boot which partition, windows, Ubuntu, both?

google for windows fixboot.
While we can help with common windows issues here we do not normally like to.
Mos of us consider windows to be broken in some way important to us so the best-practice advice we can honestly give is just "do not use it" - advice you are unlikely to find helpful.

All i am saying is that i did put my boot order back so that the internal hard drive is before usb devices. The boot files are still in the wrong place etc... (it is still getting errors when i boot without the portable hard drive plugged in.)

Right now, i can boot into all of the os's: win 7, win vista, ubuntu 9.04.

All those are assuming i have the portable hard drive plugged in. If it isn't then i cannot boot into any and i get the error 22.



I read somewhere that if i do a install of ubuntu on a phd then it would boot into ubuntu if it is plugged in, and if not it would boot into windows . I attempted that and got it wrong somewhere, and now i just wanna get rid of ubuntu WITHOUT breaking my computer. Is that possible?


Sorry if i am not clear enough, i do not really know how to communicate effectively about linux yet, unfortunately =(

If you still want to make your computer boot without the external hd you need to follow yancek's earlier post #16 for repairing boot using windows cd. Make sure you cd is first in the bios boot order and the external hd is unplugged.

When you get that right come back and I will try and get you through the rest.

Larry

but i don't have the vista dvd...

where could i get one?

Btw, thanks for all the help

also, if i put the hd first in the bios boot order the computer won't get the vista dvd anyway, will it??

Put the cd first in bios if you have that option but I believe if you put a windows cd in it should work after it tries to boot.

ok, but do you know where i could get a cd?
Does it have to be a vista because i have a win2k cd?

I now have a windows vista 32bit recovery cd

Glad you got a vista CD. A W2K CD would not work as it uses a totally different bootloader.

Post back if you get it fixed and what worked for future users and instructions on how to boot Ubuntu from the external if you're still interested in doing that.

ok, i'll have a shot. I think i found a way that should work, i'll tell you guys if it worked.