Hello:

I am a linux newbie. I have a windows xp box with 250gig hard drive of which 120GB is unpartitioned. I decided to install ubuntu linux to this partition. So I made a live ubuntu install CD and installed linux on the unassigned partition. Now when I reboot my machine after installation, I am seeing this error:

GRUB Loading stage 1.5.
GRUB loading, please wait...
Error 17

How do I fix this issue? I tried rebooting using the ubuntu live CD but that seems to hang whenever it brings up the screen to choose a language.

If I just want to get back to WinXP and start over again, how do I do that? I am clueless!!

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Thanks
Dennis

From "Solving Boot Problems with Grub - 2nd Edition"
During installation of Ubuntu you created the partition. Then, at some point of setting up the installation, you should have elected what filesystem type to use, and whether or not to format the partition for that filesystem. The error you get suggests that you did not select the option to format during installation.

In that case, you need to install Ubuntu again and make certain that you choose to format the partition during installation.

The windows users can tell you how to fix the MBR so that you can boot xp again.

Here is a method with your ubuntu cd

http://www.arsgeek.com/2008/01/15/ho...ubuntu-livecd/

and of course if you have your windows cd you can do a repair with it.

Hi Dennis: i too am a Linux newbie who cannot boot Win XP due to GRUB err 17. The boot "hangs" after i deleted the Linux partition from the "slave" (second) drive. How did you finally resolve ? Thanx.

Bob
Palm Bay, FL
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Bob Newbie, in order to get a clearer picture of your setup, how about booting your Ubuntu Live CD (the install CD), open a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and do:
That will create a "RESULTS.txt" file in the same directory from where the script is run, namely your desktop; please copy/paste the contents of that file to your next post, highlight the copied text, and click the pound sign # graphic in the forum message box so that the text will get "code" tags put around it.

If you don't have internet connectivity when using the Live CD, you can instead right-click this link to the script in your web browser, choose "Save link as...", save the "boot_info_script.txt" file, transfer it to your Ubuntu desktop on the Live CD via USB stick, floppy, or however you want to do it, and then do the following in a terminal:
The results of that script will help clarify your setup and hopefully what your problem might be.