Disk Management - My Fault

[karldenton]

Ok,

When I got my netbook I put Linux on it as well, so when you booted up, you got the option whether to boot xp or linux.

Last night I got stick of selecting XP as I never use Linux. I went into Disk Managment and deleted the logical partiions that have Linux on them.

XP kept working fine.

When I restarted, It tries to boot into Linux and as It can't find it, it comes up with an error. The problem is that it doesn't boot to XP either .

I know I haven't deleted C: so XP is still on there somewhere. I think the problem is that Linux was at the top of the boot list.

I have tried pressing F8 to get a menu but it just goes to the error.

Don't particular want to reinstall.

Any ideas on how I can get to boot into XP

Thanks

[andy_nic]

What about using a Linux live CD to add the boot menu back on?

[karldenton]

It would have to be a live USB as its a netbook so has no cd drive.

[karldenton]

What If I was to use FDisk and delete the remaining linux partition?

[featured_spectre]

you have deleted the boot loader, in theory you can shove your XP disk in and put on the MBR so it loads up with the windows boot options menu.

[Newton]

Is the Boot.ini looking in the wrong place?

[karldenton]

I'm not sure.

I've used fdisk to change the active partition. When I changed it to the C drive it just says missing operating sytem.

I know the OS is still on there.

I'm just copying WinXP onto a USB at the moment to see if I can use fixmbr to sort it.

[Jamo]

If you don't have the original XP disk to boot from, get a Super GRUB disc from online and boot to it. Then use the menus to auto repair your bootloader. All that has happened is your MBR is pointing towards GRUB which is/was on your other partition which is now gone. The XP bootloader will still be there it just needs to be pointed towards with the MBR.

 

Super Grub Disk Homepage

[karldenton]

Thanks James.

I've downloaded the supergrub - extracted and copied the files to a usb key.

When I try to boot from it it says

"Remove disks or other media - press any key to restart"

[Jamo]

Ive never tried it from USB stick! I forget that netbooks don't have CD drives! lol

 

SGD Howto make - Super Grub Disk Wiki.

 

There is a guide on there for downloading a utility in windows and creating the USB stick w/ a bootable partition on it.

 

(Under the windows title)

[karldenton]

Right,

Managed to get it to boot from usb.

When it gets to the screen, it just says "Default" and trys to autoboot but it gets to 0 seconds then starts again at 10 seconds

There is an option of press tab for options

[Jamo]

You need:

 

English Super Grub Disk

Windows

fix Boot of Windows

 

It will then list your partitions and this is where you select your main Windows partition which unless you have a backup partition should be the only one left

[karldenton]

Sorry James,

How do I get onto the bit that says English Super Grub disk?

It just says default and unetbootin at the top.

[karldenton]

Got it to that point James but doing fix boot of windows doesn't seem to work.

Just says missing operating system Might have to be a re install

[Jamo]

Mmm it won't be missing have you tried all the partitions and made sure that the Windows partition is marked as ACTIVE and BOOT?

 

If you have an XP install disk you can use the repair option and type :

 

fixmbr

 

It should attempt to fix it. Then type exit and restart.

[glennda]

You just need to boot recovery console, run fixMBR restart and should boot windows fine

 

Toby

[Andyjbee]

Do you have access to a external CD drive? You could try running bootcfg /rebuild from XP recovery console this has solved a few problems for me in the past.

[karldenton]

Sorted it. Removed Grub from both partitions.

Thanks James