Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. The partition was dual-booting, Windows/ Ubuntu. It was changed with Norton Partition magic, now it will not boot. Started with Grub loading stage 1.5, then ERROR 17. Anyone know about this please?

i think it must be ubuntu 7.04
installation was not able to put grub..
try re-installing again or recover grub

Is it possible to reinstall without formatting, there is a lot of valuable data.
Thanks for your help.

If you changed the partitions using "Partition Tragic" you get exactly what it says on the tin. The software is a Windows-based software and should never be trusted to alter a Linux. Most partition table corruption problems relating to hard disks are courtesy of this software, especially its older versions.

You can use the Ubuntu LIve CD to restore Grub.

Just click terminal and type
The first partition of Type ID 83 should be the /boot or / of Ubuntu. Write down its partition number, say it is (hd0,2). You can then ask Grub to restore itself by command
Adjust the partition reference to suit your case. Restoring Grub is a reversible operation so no lasting damage is done if you get it wrong. If Grub report errors from the "geometry" statement then you have been sold down the river by Partition Tragic.

Hi,

I am try ing to use Infrarecorder, but I cannot find the 'Add boot image - advanced options' section, I cannot create a bootable disk.

Try this link :

http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p18.htm

Thanks for your help but that does not get me a bootable disk. If I run the Windows reinstall will that fix it,- no probably not because it is the grub loader that gives error 17. What does error 17 mean?

If you Google "Grub Manual" you will see Error 17 is

17 : Cannot mount selected partition
This error is returned if the partition requested exists, but the filesystem type cannot be recognized by GRUB.

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You can try to restore either Grub or Windows MBR. The commands are documented in the last link of my signature. But my fear is the Partition Tragic may have corrupted your partition table making the booting nearly impossible because the boot loader cannot locate the hard disk address to make a connection.

Everything should be revealed if you boot up a Ubuntu Live CD, click terminal and see the output from command
Had you followed my suggestion in Post #4 you should have Grub telling you the health of your partitions.

That highly depends on the setup that you used when installing windows and/or ubuntu. If they have seperate partitions for the data, that will be possible. However, this now also depends on what you did when you changed things with Partition Magic? Removed partitons, resized partitions?

Further:
Your data is not valuable. If it was, you would have made sure that you had backups.

It's not my computer, it belongs to a 16-yearold, who is learning his first lesson about data backup. I only use windows, but I am just trying to help out with his Linux problem.

I was not able to get a grub disk, I downloaded a file, SGD_current.iso, I could not find one with GZ, but could not extract it with 7.ZIP. I tried a second with no luck.

I have got a Ubuntu CD, but when I start the PC with it, it says,
(last 3 lines)
Caldera DR-DOS 7.03
copyright etc
DR-DOS A:>

I can change to c:, it's the Linux patition, D is Windows, E is CDROM with Ubuntu (I downloaded Ubuntu 7.04, and extractd to CD.
The only program in the root, is START, but does not work in DOS.
There are lots of folders, but what do I do next to restore GRUB, please?

The advice I could offer is no better than those in Post #4.

You may be able to pull a rabbit DrDos out of a hat but that doesn't do Grub.

I now have a grub CD When I ran the following commands, it said
Command or filename not recognized.
sudo su
grub
I tried this at the A: prompt and the f: (CDROM) prompt.
Help please?

I have since gone back to Post #4 and changed the commands in Linux terminal to blue and commands at a Grub prmpt to red.

Read the Post #4 again and adjust as nessary for your parition that has /boot of Ubuntu. Remember Grub counts from zero so that the first partition of the first disk is called (hd0,0) hence my suggestion of using command "geometry (hd0)" to get the partition reference directly from the horse's mouth.

If you have a problem of convincing what partition has Grub inside you can ask Grub to tell you by this command
The partition reference Grub replies is the "root" you need to specify to do a "setup (hd0)" restoring Grub back into the MBR.