I had recently installed Ubuntu onto my computer with Windows xp already on it. Everything worked fine, except Ubuntu never could get the internet to work, but that's hardly now my problem. I no longer wanted the Ubuntu platform because I saw no reason to keep it if the internet was not useable whilst on that operating system. Anyway, after getting the Ubuntu operating system onto my computer, GRUB was installed to manage the two operating systems. I used Windows XP's Disk Management program to remove the two partitions made to run Ubuntu, now, there are two seperate partitions of unallocated space. (I'm on a different computer now, this all took place on my laptop). I tried to reboot my computer just for regular maintenance after this, and the computer starts to load GRUB and gets the same error as talked about before:
GRUB stage 1.5
GRUB loading. please wait..
Error 22

I can't do anything from there, and I tried using the option PXE Boot which is given to me at the Gateway boot screen. And that tries to use a thing called NVIDIA Boot Agent, but it says no operating system found. I never touched the Windows XP partition so I know it's not damage and it's still there. I'm hoping someone knows what I can do to remove grub and get my computer to load up windows automatically again just like it did when it was manufactored.

PLEASE HELP!

All you need to do is use your Windows install disk (or a bootable windows 98 floppy) to get into a recovery mode. Then you do fixmbr (from XP recovery) or fdisk /mbr from a DOS/98/ME floppy.

What happened is that grub installed to the Master boot record of your hard drive. Then it installed it's configuration files on one of the linux partitions telling it where to find windows and where to find linux. Then you deleted the config files when you deleted linux. So now it doesn't know where to go to find Windows.

You actually can boot Windows from this damaged grub by getting a grub> prompt and then following instructions at this link (there's also a section on fixing the MBR from a dos/98 floppy, etc). You'd be interested in step C1 to boot windows from the grub> prompt...

I have no floppy drive for my laptop, is there anyway to download/burn an .iso file or make a recovery cd by downloading from somewhere off the net. Preferrably nothing that will cost money. I tried just copying the files from a bootable floppy disk to the cd and at the boot screen I chose to try and make it boot from the cd but it just went to the same grub loading screen.

Any ideas?
thanks

If you have the Windows CD, just boot off of that and go into the Recovery Console during the Windows Setup. You don't need to make a floppy disk or a bootable CD if you have a CD drive. I'm assuming your laptop has a CD drive? Don't you have the original Windows CD that came with your laptop when you bought it? If you can't get one, just borrow one from someone. Everyone and their mom has Windows.

Well, I found my recovery cd, but it only allows me 2 options, 1 is to format destructively which removes anything and everything and then reinstalls the factory xp version with the basic stuff on it. and 2 is to do a backup version which backs up a lot of files and reinstalls xp, but it removes all my application/programs that I've downloaded over time. I want to just do the fixmbr thing and retain everything on my computer. But I am never given a way or screen that allows me to use the fixmbr command.

Download FreeDos, burn it into a CD and use its fdisk.exe to replace Grub in accordance with Post #2

K, now I just decided to deal with it and I went and bought and external floppy drive that plugs into my usb port. I made a ms dos startup disk and then added the file fdisk.exe to it, I try and run the fdisk.exe program with the exact command fdisk /mbr and then it says Incorrect DOS version. I have no clue what this could be a problem from. I had Windows XP Media Center on my laptop, and the desktop I'm temporarily using to try and keep in contact with everyone and fix this problem also has Windows XP Media Center. It is the computer I used to make a startup floppy from. I see no reason why there should be any conflict if the computers have the same media center version and all. Could it be the fdisk.exe program I downloaded off the net is bad or corrupted?

The fdisk.exe should always run on the Dos system that came with it.

You just boot up the Dos floppy, issue the command "fdisk /mbr". There is no response but on a reboot MS MBR will be restored and it will load into the memory any primary partition that has the booting flag marked "active".

by doing all this is there any effect on data.

hi you need supergrubdisk

http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org/

try making one of these.. indespensable..

i reckon from my own experience that you probably have some daft hidden partition or something that has been put on by the manufacturer with recovery gadgets in it.. that is probably what is throwing grub out.. at least thats what happened on this acer laptop.

hth

I had ubuntu on my computer and wanted to remove it. I deleted the partition and now I come up with grub loading error 22 and can't go any further. I have xp on the computer but can't get to it. I have no floppy or cd drives on my computer so I can't boot from a cd or floppy. Any ideas.