I Messed Up!
 

Hey,
I used partition magic to add a ext3 and a linuxswap partition to my drive... That worked fine..

Unfortunatly i've now deleted those partitions...

And grub is still looking for linux.. so now I can't tell it to boot up windows.


I'm getting on boot.

Grub could not mount
Error 17

I have a knoppix live cd here... if anyone could show em how to get my laptop back to windows that would be great.

Thanks:D :Pengy: :scratch:

Not sure if this will help but go ahead and give it a try.

boot from your knoppix cd
start a (root) shell which is found in your start menu.
start cfdisk.(make sure your hard drive is mounted.
make sure your partitions are indeed deleted, not just screwed up.
If you need to, delete the partitions and write.

You can also try booting from a windows cd and using fdisk to re-write the partitions as FAT.

I've never been in this situation so I don't know what else you can do except install knoppix to the empty partition and try deleting it again, but I hope this will help.

If you are unsure what to do, just give us an output of cfdisk, and we will guide you. Go on, it can't be much worse!

ok the output:



hda1 boot primary NTFS [] 20000mb
pri/log Free Space 19000mb

That's all that's there at the moment

Grub is installed in the MBR and... wait, when I deleted my partitions, it gave an error! No idea here... for now, put in your Windoes cd and do an fdisk /mbr. Will help.

after deleting them properly as you said...

i'm now getting

GRUB loading, please wait
Error 22

when i boot...

lol bit behind posting here sorry thanks i'll try what you said with the windows cd :)

Ok, we will wait. If smoething happens, tho you can always install a small linux there, boot into windoes and then fdisk /mbr.

There is no fdisk...


(how philosophical)

download a boot disk (i use a windows me one) from the internet

http://www.bootdisk.com/

then type at the dos prompt fdisk /MBR

Damn! Windows XP, I presume? ARGH! Ok, we do it the long way, then. Install whatever distro you had. Get grub to boot. Boot into Windows, do an fdisk /mbr. Delete Linux. Too bad...

Edit: YAY! The bootdisk might be an answer! Try it!

i'm on xp... should i choose the ME one? i don't see XP on there...

oh
let me complicate things..


There is no floppy drive.

:'(

Try this CD:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

orr....
with the windows cd, you can boot into the recovery console and type the command fixmbr at the prompt, and that will install window's bootloader back into the mbr.

you can then play with your partitions again with partition magic, or other partitioning tool..