Need help uninstalling Linux (GRUB problem - no XP install cd)

ShBm

ShBm

New Member
I uninstalled Linux, but when I start, GRUB gives me error 21. I read you solve this by doing fixmbr with an XP install disc. Since this is a laptop, though, I don't have that disc. How can I fix this? (I don't have a floppy drive either)
 
is their any other os on the Hard drive is it a dual boot laptop ? if you made a dual boot the only way (i can think of) is to get that xp disc. otherwise you're much srewed up.
 
Your title for the thread sums up what you will need to see this corrected. Do you have a cd writer in the laptop or one available? You will need to remove the Linux partition(s) as well to resize the XP primary or lose drive space. GParted live for cd is the Linux Gnome Partition Editor that will easily remove the Linux partitions off.

But you will still need an XP installation disk to see the mbr corrected for a normal XP bootup. Otherwise while I used a little more tact patricky summed that up point blank. It certainly is worth having a full install disk for the OS you will be running. You may need to reinstall Windows for some other reason where again you would be ? without it!
 
USB boot

ShBm said:
I uninstalled Linux, but when I start, GRUB gives me error 21. I read you solve this by doing fixmbr with an XP install disc. Since this is a laptop, though, I don't have that disc. How can I fix this? (I don't have a floppy drive either)
Click to expand...

I'd recommend checking out the grub thread on this Ubuntu Linux forum:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=271505

If your notebook can boot from USB you can use a Linux distribution on a USB key and boot from it, then look at your:

/boot/grub/menu.lst

file. From what I've read on various sites it sounds like it's pointing to the wrong drive.

If you have experience using the vi or nano editor you might be able to change the settings to work correctly for you.

Cheers,

Charles
 
That would be a Stage 2 error being seen there. But an alternate method of restoring the XP mbr requires a floppy drive if you don't have the installation disk available. With the setup floppies or an XP boot disk you should be able to get to the recovery console. The MS links for both 32bit versions of XP is found at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310994

For a quick boot floppy you can also download a floppy image from http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm Upon getting the recovery console by boot floppy you can then enter the "Fixboot" and "Fixmbr" commands then to see XP reset as the default OS.
 
Of course, the simplest way to fix this is the Windows disk- but the next best thing you can do is boot into your XP partition. All I can think of for that thats small and requires minimal configuration is a SuSE Live CD (install cd- can be the network boot cd if you want to save space). Just boot into it and then it lets you choose your partition to boot.
From there you can boot into Windows and then fix the mbr from there (there is a GUI for it under the My Computer properties).

If you installed Ubuntu, Sabayon, or one of the other Live CD-based installer distros then you should just be able to pop that in, then take a peek at your Grub menu file. I can probably help you more if you can post that :) (its usually /boot/grub.menu.lst as previously stated). You should be able to either fix the problem from there or at least boot into something usable.
 
That will depend if you want to restore the Linux distro or simply remove that totally and have XP as the stand alone OS as you were asking. The Linux drive partitioning tool GParted can easily remove the root and swap if any and resize the XP primary. You then simply boot up to the recovery console to restore XP's mbr. If that fails then you perform a repair install.
 
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