windows won't boot after deleting linux partition

Emperor_nero

Emperor_nero

New Member
Hi I have a very complicated question to ask and I will try my best and any help would be appreciated. I set up a triple boot of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Linux Ubuntu.
All on different partitions. And when I was in XP I deleted the Linux Ubuntu partition and when I rebooted and selected xp or vista it would start loading then restart. When I unplugged the hard drive and plugged it into a different computer and set it as slave when I booted up the computer up it could not find the slave hard drive.

So what I want to know is how to get it back so I can boot xp or vista? Any advice?

---Joshua
 
Assuming you haven't also deleted the Windows partitions boot your computer with a DOS floppy and at the dos prompt type fdisk /mbr and see if that doesn't help.

Here is a winimage floppy image if a windows 98 boot disk if you need it.
http://h1.ripway.com/super-hampster/98boot.IMA

You'll need winimage to use it. Or Nero can use it to make a boot CD.


 
The use of a cd created with GPart 0.1h(Gnome Partition Editor) will easily detect and remove the Linux and Vista partition. Once that is done you can resize the XP(hopefully) primary partition out to a certain and size and then create a new partition to use for?

If the XP partition is still intact you could try the repair install method to get XP running again with a new mbr along with a repaired boot sector. You would first boot with the XP installation disk to try the fixmbr and fixboot commands to see if that will restore the boot sector along with repair of the master boot record(mbr). If XP fails to load then the repair install method would be the next step unless you are planning to reformat the drive to create a new single primary partition. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
 
I have already tried to do a repair install and it can't find any partitions? and i tried booting with the xp CD and ran the commands fixmbr and fixboot and it comes up with a error message. I will try gpart 0.1h tonight.

thanks.:)
 
GPart 0.1h will be a great help there in showing what partitions are actually on the drive now. The general removal instructions for Vista can found at the bottom of the page at http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=76212

Unfortunately you probably have Lilo installed into the mbr preventing either XP or the beta version of Vista from loading. When you slaved the drive you probably had the jumper set on the wrong position. If that was on the slave setting try cable select unless you left on master? GPart will be the one to use here. But you will probably need to reformat everything to get XP running again if you can't gain access there to remove the "boot" folders and files that Vista added to XP partition.
 
Insert the XP CD and reboot. When it loads, go into the Recovery Console.

Type fixmbr and fixboot. This will restore the default Windows bootloader and hopefully let you boot XP again.

If not, the XP partition might not be set as active. Fdisk, Partition Magic's boot disks or something like GParted will probably let you set it active.
 
When running RC1 briefly here on a second drive it left a boot folder that took a little doing at deleting the files there. Those were inaccessible at first even after wiping the other drive's primary. You had to go back and forth right clicking and changing ownership and other read only properties. The folder and it's sub folder are still there for the moment. Linux or another boot method will see that gone.
 
When I have the hard drive with the problem set to Cable Select boot into XP on a secend hard drive. In the Device Manager under Disk Drives it lists my hard drive that i'm booting from and the one with the problems, but it does not show the one i'm having with problems in My Computer or in Disk Management. if you want I have screen shots.


Thanks for all the help.
 
You will probably want to set the problem as master and unplug the other one. From there you will probably be better off booting with a GPart 0.1h cd and delete the partitions found. Once that is done in the short time there you can easily create a new primary with the XP installer unless you plan to multiboot again.

GPart will create the partitions easy enough for both Windows and Linux if you are not going strictly with XP. Once the one or more partitions are made boot from the XP disk and go to town. With XP running again you can then decide which drive to use as master.
 
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