boot loader troubles with windows...
 

ok, ive been attempting to use linux for about 2 months now (i broke windows and couldn't afford a new disc). either way, now i got a hold of a copy of XP and i want to load it back on my good computer. i followed through the norm (fdisk, reformat, blah) but when i try to boot from the cd, all it gives me is the grub > prompt. bottom line is, i want windows XP back on the former linux box which loads the grub prompt instead of windows start-up. im planning on loading linux on the computer im using right now so dont think im giving up on it, i just need the power of that other one for windows apps. any help would be very appreciated. thanks.

Make sure the computer actually tries to boot from the CD. You should be able to change the boot order in the system's BIOS setup program. A sane and common variant is using Floppy as first boot device, CD-ROM as second and hard drive as third. This will allow booting from both floppy and CD-ROM, but when none of these media are found the system will boot from the harddisk.


Håkan

So did you install Windows and you're still getting to grub prompt and can't login to Windows, is that it? Which partition did you install windows on? The first partition? If so, boot into linux and edit /boot/grub/menu.lst (or it may be called grub.conf - it's called menu.lst on my computer but I've read other people call it grub.conf) and add

Have you tried a windows 98 bootdisk? Is fdisk /mbr what you were referring to?

If not, that should work.

in regards to hw-tph:
i already checked that before i posted. i checked everything that i could think of before posting. thanks though.

in regards to Andrew Benton:
i never actually got windows installed onto the hard drive. i repartitioned and formatted the entire disk before attempting to boot the windows start-up. therefore, i can't access any linux files (they're dead...i killed them...im a horrible man...lol).

and finally in regards to soulful93:
yeah, i used a 98 boot disk for it. i did not know about fdisk /mbr. i just tried it now and now my computer boots with a message saying "Missing Operating System." I think I might be able to work my way through this situation. I did once but I don't quite remember how. Oh well, looks like I get to have some fun.

thanks for your help guys.