Grub error 22 on netbook(no cd drive)
 

i "tried" booting ubuntu from usb but i messed around with partition and now i get the error 22...and i somehow messed up the usb as well and now i cant boot linux too. anyway before i write wall of text i will try to make it clear what my problem is and what i tried to do.

problem:
1.booting up with no usb(booting to windows)
grub error 22

2.booting up with usb(trying to boot to linux)
on screen it says "boot:" i used UNetbootin. i was able to boot to linux until i messed around with partition even more...

my "solution"
after searching on google i read that i should make freedos boot on usb and enter fixmbr or fdsk /mbr because mbr need to reset or something... so i got freedos on usb and booted it. after booting it asked me for date and time and i get "C:\>". when i type something it says "bad command or filename -"

so my question is is there any other alternative way of fixing it? or what is wrong with my solution?

thanks for help!

When you try to boot the computer, do you get the grub menu at all? If you do, then you can try the grub commandline.

http://linuxbasics.org/tutorials/adv...b_command_line

You say you messed with the partitions. Did you delete something? What did you use to mess with the partitions?

You say you are using UNetbootin - what have you put on it? It looks like it is designed to put a distro or something like Super Grub on it.

Which version of windows do you have?
Did you have it installed and working before trying to install (which distribution of) Linux?
What did you do with the partitions?
The solution you tried is to put windows in the master boot record and would not help boot Linux without several more steps.

My guess when the USB Linux was installed the boot loader was accidentally installed in the MBR of the internal hard disk where the MS Windows resides.

Freedos "fdisk" fixes only the older systems up to Xp. Vista and Win7 requires a different cure.

When using the Freedos one should check first if the fdisk.exe is inside in the C:\. The error obviously telling the user the requested command isn't inside C:\ or it cannot be used. The other possibility of the error is the fdisk command may try to repair the MBR in the c:\ drive but this is a USB device that a Dos by default does not support as a booting medium. This problem can be overcome by putting the Freedos on a floppy or a CD.

thank you guys for the replies!

no there is no grub menu. when i try to boot linux (eeebuntu distro) from usb i get "boot:" thats all. to be more exact it says
"SYSLINUX 3.63 Debian-2008-07-15 EBIOS Copyright (c) 1994-2008 H. Peter Anvin

Boot:(cursor here)"
when i type something it says "Could not find kernel image:(what i type)"
and then after few secs the screen turns grey which is suppose to be unetbootin menu but without the menu. i cant do anything.
On USB i installed EEEbuntu with Unetbootin. I tried to delete my previous linux partition with Gparted and then try to merge it to winxp but screen froze so i restarted by taking out the battery...then my partition that i was merging to got deleted/corrupted. whenever i try to use Gparted my laptop froze and after few times i started getting the error.

I have Windows XP and yes, it was installed on my laptop and i was trying to boot LInux from USB because i did not want to dual boot. i use EEEbuntu.

hmm maybe i messed up installing freedos from USB. FYI, i used http://www.bensbits.com/2007/08/21/b...sb_flash_drive guide. im a newbie so maybe i didnt do it right. i dont have internal cd drive on my laptop so my last resort is buy an external drive...but im so poor >.> college textbook ate all my money -.-

Usually when it says "boot" you just press ENTER key and it boots. You should not type anything.

it says "boot: " and when i hit enter i just get another boot: l dont know how that frown face got there... but anyway, i put supergrubdisk on usb using unetbootin and try to boot it. i see the menu but i cant seem to click on any. i hit enter but nothing happens.

Are you not able to boot from your hard disk with xp?
Are you not able to boot from whichever distro of Linux you installed on the USB?
Do you have a Linux Live CD and a CD drive?
I don't think FreeDOS is the best way to go, can you download SuperGrubDisk and try that?
It seems you don't have the stage1 Grub file in mbr of USB as noted in an earlier post. Do you remember where you installed Grub?

If you can boot any Live CD and run the "fdisk -l" command as root (lower case Letter L) and post it here someone may be able to help with that partition information avaialble.

1. Nope. i get the grub error.
2. Nope. i get broken grey screen and when i hit enter i get black screen with "Boot: " on. whenever i type stufff on it it say kernel image not found.
3. nope. no internal drive. i have to buy external one. it will be my last resort....
4. i did try supergrubdisk. read my last post.
5. i dont even know what grub is so i dont know where i installed it.

I had good luck running Ubuntu remix on a usb stick for my netbook. If you get that on the stick, you can boot it and then run 'fdisk -l' to see what partitions you actually have. If you have a partition already made for Linux, you could then install this version on it and it should give you a new grub in the mbr so you can boot windows.

I would suggest that you do not repartition with it, though, because I had a bigger problem than I think you do after repartitioning. I can explain it later, but I don't want to muddy things now. First just let us see what you actually have for partitions, assuming you can get this on your usb stick. Be sure to read the instructions for how to put it on the stick. It is not a simple copy.

http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download-netbook

Restoring Windows Master Boot records will get rid of grub so you couldnt boot from linux < Only windows. I had a error with this once before.... I restored MBR's Then i created a linux boot disk and in my bios told it to boot from USB Drive, then from there i reinstalled grub.
I know these steps dont explain how to do it, but it kind of explains what to do

thank you! it worked. i installed unbuntu remix thro usb before but i didnt know that was the solution! but now how do i uninstall ubuntu without getting the grub error again? i want to dual boot windows with different linux distro.

What other distro's you wanna install?

You boot many distros besdies windows
you can also boot frugal distros from the ubuntu partition too

i want to uninstall unbuntu linux. i only want to have windows on my laptop and boot EEEbuntu linux from SD card or USB.

Glad to hear it worked. I'm assuming that you installed it, or are you just running it on the usb stick? To install another distro you need to get something on the usb stick like you did for ubuntu remix. If you installed ubuntu on the hard drive, do not delete that partition or ubuntu just yet.

First, please do 'sudo fdisk -l > partition.txt' (that is an ell, not a one). Then post the partition.txt here so we can see what you are working with.