I have a problem, a major problem:

I have one hard drive, an 80GB Western Digital.

I had Windows XP and Fedora Core 3 working perfectly with GRUB as the bootloader. It had three partitions:

- 40 GB for Windows /dev/hd1
- 39 GB for Linux /dev/hd2
- 1 GB as a share

By default, GRUB would start Linux unless I invoked the bootloader using spacebar at startup and selected XP. This was working fine.

Then a couple days back I wanted to get rid of Linux so I went into Windows XP and used the Partition Magic Partitioning Software to delete the Linux partition. The operation worked and the free space was merged with the Windows XP partition (so the Windows XP partition is now 79 GB). I also deleted the share partition (alhough the free space wasn't distributed and kinda just stayed there).

But when I boot the computer, all I see is the word GRUB with a blinking cursor next to it. I can't type anything at this prompt.

I can't even re-install Linux cuz there's not enough space to do so since all the space is being hogged by the Windows XP partition. I tried installing Fedora Core 4 but it complains that there's not enough hard disk space to do so.

Is there a way I can just boot into XP?

Is it possible for me to create another partition on the 79 GB hard drive so I can re-install Linux (thus re-installing GRUB)?

I really don't want to format my XP partition and am looking for a way to just boot into XP.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Boot from your XP install disk into the "Recovery" mode. At the C:/WINDOWS > prompt, type fixmbr, and reboot. (You'll need your XP administrator password to do this.)

Your problem is because you left the GRUB master boot record (MBR) on you hard drive, and it's trying to load its "Stage 2" file from the deleted Linux partition.

Oh, if you don't have an XP boot disk, you can fix GRUB from any Linux rescue disk to boot directly into XP, but that's somewhat harder to do.

Edit: You can also create a GRUB boot floppy which will start the XP system (search the forums here for details), but booting from a floppy every time could be tiresome.

Thanks a lot. I'll try it when I get home today. I'll try the "Recovery" mode method first. I've also created a XP Boot Floppy by following Microsoft Article #305595. I can't post the link here because I have less than five posts.

I'll let you know how it goes later.

It worked great. As you said, I used the Recovery disk to invoke fxmbr on the c:/windows prompt. I didn't even have to use the original XP Pro disk. XP Home worked fine.

Thanks again. Much appreciated.