Problems with GRUB
 

Long, sad story made short.

I have a Samsung Netbook running Windows XP Home, SP3.

I set it up to dual boot with Ubuntu, just so I could play around with
Ubuntu. Well, Ubuntu started giving me trouble: my internet connection went
south, I was unable to adjust the brightness of the Netbook screen, etc., and
when I looked for troubleshooting help on the internet, it was all Greek to
me as it involved working with Terminal.

I did a search for removing a partition in Windows XP and found "How
to use Disk Management to configure basic disks in Windows XP" on the
Microsoft and followed the instructions there.

Now, when I try to boot the Netbook, I get this:
GRUB loading.
error: no such partition
grub rescue>

When I research what this means, the solutions, all on Linux sites are
baffling to me because I am such a newbie.

I should add:

I cloned my Netbook HD about a month ago to an external HD, just in case that's of importance.
I have been successful in rebooting my Netbook with a Ubuntu 9.10 on a flash drive'

Please note that Netbooks do not come with an optical drive.

Anyone have the patience to help me fix what I have done?

Many thanks,

Well I guess the first question is, which solution are you looking for?

What I mean is, do you want to have Ubuntu back up and running and the system in dual boot or removing
the Ubuntu partition and back to just Windows?

GRUB problem
 

Thanks for responding, grail.

What I would like to do is to remove the Ubuntu partition and go back to just Windows.

I found Ubuntu to be a bit more than I had bargained for.

I tried posting to a Windows Newsgroup but no joy there, except several posters opined that my Windows partition was probably intact/fine and that I was most likely not faced with losing everything I had done in the month since I cloned the Netbook's HD.

Finger searching wins again :)

http://www.blogmanno.com/?q=node/9

Let me know if you get stuck, but it seems fairly straight forward.

Note: I was surprised you had so many issues with Ubuntu as it has been the linux distro of choice i have recommended
to a few users and they have faired ok. I hope you will have another go in the future :)

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub.html

take a look here...may help u!

Grail, avee137 -

Thanks to both of you for your suggestions.

Grail -

Since there is no optical drive on netbooks, is it possible to use a flash drive where the instructions on the Blogmanno site sat to use a boot floppy?

Thanks.

I see no reason why not. It really just needs to boot off something else as windows XP and beyond don't have
a traditional CLI as well as the gui. So yes make a boot flash drive:

here are a couple of links I found if you are unsure on the process:
www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm
thepcspy.com/read/bootable_usb_flash_drive/

Problems with GRUB
 

My apologies for taking so long to reply.

Searching around while awaiting a reply, I found instructions "for making a USB pen flash-drive bootable to Windows XP's Recovery Console. Useful for netbooks with no cd-rom drive."

It worked, but would not accept my administrator password. Instructions at the Microsoft site stated:

Note If you use an incorrect password three times, the Windows Recovery Console closes. Also, if the Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database is missing or damaged, you cannot use the Windows Recovery Console because you cannot be authenticated correctly. After you enter your password and the Windows Recovery Console starts, type Exit to restart the computer.

I know I am using the correct password, so I can only presume that my SAM database is damaged or missing.

Curses! Foiled again.

Any suggestions anyone?

Super GRUB disk to the rescue! Use the USB image off their website and slap it on a USB, set your BIOS to boot from it, follow the Winblows boot recovery instructions off their wiki, and you will be home free.

Thanks, Leopard. Will check this out later today.

FYI, here are my results so far, as of this a.m.:

I booted from a USB flash drive again, and at the press ENTER>? prompt,

I entered 1, and at the request for an Administrator password, I hit Enter.

I typed in the command : FIXBOOT C: then [ENTER]

Received this:

The file system on the startup partition is NTFS
FIXBOOT IS writing a new boot sector
New boot sector was successfully written

Exited & restarted holding down the f2 key to return the boot order to
IDE HDD : Samsung at the top.
And found myself once again back at:
GRUB loading.
error: no such partition
grub rescue>


Rebooted with the USB flash drive and did this:

Typed in the command : FIXBOOT C: then press [ENTER]

After it did its thing, I rebooted w/o the USB flash drive and got:

GRUB loading.
error: no such partition
grub rescue>

Like I say, will try your suggestions later today.

Thanks again.

Sorry. Yet another problem.

I went to the SuperGrub site.

Downloaded sgd_0.9588_for_usb.tar.gz

Using Windows XP; double clicked on the download and got: Windows cannot open this file.

What software would you recommend I download in order to open it, please?

New GRUB Copies
 

Do this...
Install Puppy Linux on to a Jump Drive...
In the Start Menu is GRUB CONFIG.
Chose the basic settings and chose install to MBR(Possibly Unsafe)

And the GRUB will have new copies of files to load from or else you might have to REINSTALL UBUNTU

@jeeper98 - the OP is looking to get rid of Ubuntu and get back into Windows.

OP - you can download 7-zip from here: http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
this will be able to extract the downloaded file for you.

It's a .img file. I recommend you use Unetbootin as it's fairly easy and will properly implement an FS. Another route that may be good for you is listed here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...n/FromImgFiles Of course, you can always use 7-zip, WinRAR or Winzip to 'unzip' the file, and put it on the stick; this particular method isn't recommended. From Linux you can use DD, however it appears this is not accessible in your situation.

You can also try the Windows executable: http://developer.berlios.de/project/...group_id=10921

I recommend using the oldest version of Super GRUB; it maintains compatibility with their wiki and will be simple and straightforward. Here is the wiki entry in which will help you: http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/UninstallGRUB

Simply pick your method of getting it on the USB stick, set your BIOS to boot from the USB, and follow that wiki entry and you will be fixed in no time flat. Hope this helps!