Formatted Ubuntu partition in Windows, GRUB error on boot

Hmmmm, I tried googling with not much sucess.

Here's what happened. I formatted the Ubuntu partition cause I wanted to resize all my partitions, and when I rebooted the notebook to let Partition Magic do its thing, I forgot about GRUB. It gave me a error and just stalled at that.

What are my options now?

I can't do anything right now

 

You need to boot from your XP disc and enter the Recovery console option; select the Windows install location displayed to you. Then, using the command line, type "fixmbr" and your boot sector will be overwritten. GRUB will be deleted. Piece of cake!

 

Thanks for the reply.

Sounds easy enough but I don't have the XP discs, only restore discs. I don't think there is an recovery option, but I'll look into it. Thanks.

 

You'll most likely need to run Ubuntu live CD, install a new Ubuntu system and that's how you'll get GRUB back. That is, if you still want to use it. You just can't use Grub without having a linux distribution installed. :S It has to place it's settings and files in somewhere.

 

What's the error?

 

GRUB Error 15.


I can't find my Ubuntu CD, argh.

 

I was wondering if somehow you've re-ordered your partitions by resizing them. Anyway since grub can't find the boot file (error 15), you could look for it and try to boot your linux by editing the grub boot partition information, on the fly. This is what I would try;

This change is not permanent. In order for you to fix your grub booting, you will need to edit your grub.conf file to have the correct boot parameters. You do not need to reinstall your system. If you get your Linux live boot cd/dvd you can accomplish a similar thing by examining your disk directly. You can look at the output of a fdisk -l and see which partition your boot partition is on, and edit your grub.conf, accordingly..

Good Luck

 

Thanks for your instructions, but there is no countdown.

It says this:

I try spamming ESC but it does nothing it seems. I know for sure I formatted Ubuntu cause it would not let me partition the current Ubuntu partition without reformatting. Thanks for the quick replies!

 

Likely, the grub settings were all in the Ubuntu partition, if you can't get a hold of a Windows Install CD, but you CAN reinstall Ubuntu, if you create a separate /boot partition (needs no more than 100MB), then you can reformat the Ubuntu root partition ( "/" ), and just leave the /boot partition, and it should work just fine (though you may want to remove the non-Windows entries from "/boot/grub/menu.lst" ).

 

I'm not sure, but I think you can enter the commands I mentioned after a Grub error. Just try entering "c" after the grub error, and see if that enters the command line mode. If not then you may be forced to try figuring out what's wrong with a live cd/dvd.

Good Luck..

 

If you want to get rid of GRUB from your MBR and use windows bootloader, download one of the windows bootdisks from http://bootdisk.com/ - be sure it includes either "fdisk" or "fixmbr" utility, boot using it, and then, in console type: "fdisk /mbr" or mentioned before "fixmbr"

 

Grub error 15: "15 : File not found
This error is returned if the specified file name cannot be found, but everything else (like the disk/partition info) is OK. "

Found it in the Grub manual: HERE

 

1- You can just reinstall Ubuntu on that partition, and install GRUB again as part of it.

2- If you don't want GRUB at all, or Linux for that matter, you can restore things to a normal Windows boot by downloading and burning the iso for Super Grub. Then boot with this CD. You may have to play around with the various options for Windows... I don't remember every detail exactly although I have used it a number of times without any problem. Also, forget Partition Magic. Just use GParted, another downloadable iso. Works very well.

If you delete any Linux distro by which you installed GRUB in the first place, then GRUB will not be able to boot anything, since it won't know what to boot. The settings are in a Linux file.

 

Can you get to a command line? If so, you can manually boot Windows as follows:

root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
boot

You may have to change the attributes of the (hd0,x) to (hd0,1) or whatever, but that should get you in, assuming you can at least get to a GRUB command line.

- Trip

 

The best bet is what the one guy said about getting a windows boot disk and doing the fdisk/ fixmbr command. i had a similiar issue with Vista. i had dual boot and linux caused probs so i got rid of it and had same prob as you do.

With vista, you put in the restore disc, go to install, then command prompt, then type in:

bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /fixmbr

Do that, and Vista is fixed. it worked in about 4 seconds, on teh first try. so, do what he said about bootdisc and fixmbr. its the best solution and will restore your MBR and restore the NTLODR that windows uses natively to boot.

ev

 

i had the same problem and i tried everything,
reinstalled grub - ubuntu boot cd

after trying: from the XP cd
/fixboot
/fixmbr

^^ that should work

but it killed the partition table.... game over, lost everything on c:\


make a backup if you have a 2.5" hdd usb case....

 

I think if would have done fixboot, just fixmbr (since your windows was bootable, and grub resides in mbr only, not partitions boot sector), you hadn't lost your data. At least me, I've done such a thing dozen of times and never experienced data loss.

 

I will give props to MS though on Vista for this fix. its WAY easier in vista. pop in the restore disc, go to install, cmd, then type in those two command lines, and it does it. it reports back its done, and then you quit the install and re boot. it reboots as normal. no loss of data or anything. its really a nice, easy fix, and those things are usually not associated with Vista.

I was surprised at how easy and smooth it went. especially since i am NOT that familiar with linux and had NO IDEA i would run into this problem and was a little PANICKED when i got the grub error and was unable to boot at all.

In my case though i got the grub error 22 message. different number because of the diff OS but same problem.

Coincidentally thank you rumil for filling in the exact commands for XP. i honestly didnt know the ones for XP. and yeah, great point about doing a complete image save using an external drive. that is an AWESOME idea and something we should all be doing anyway, and a good thing for him to do before running those commands too. i did exactly that last night, and now have a complete mirror image of my system saved to an external drive, just in case. always nice to have a backup!

ev

 

I finally borrowed my friends XP disc(since I only had restore discs from my notebook), and it worked great in the Recovery Console, all I had to do was /fixmbr

Then I partitioned all my drivers through GParted and installed Ubuntu again.

Thanks for the help!