Can't get into Windows

DarkMassacre · 02-08-2008, 05:30 PM

I duel boot XP and Ubuntu, and decided I wanted to try another Linux OS, and get rid of Ubuntu. A friend of mine told me to just delete the Ubuntu partition, so I used GParted to do so. When I restart my computer however and I get to "Grub loading 1.5" I get an "Error 22" message and can't get passed it. Right now I'm using the Ubuntu live CD to even post. When I open up GParted I see my Windows partition and the one I had used for Ubuntu, but it just says unallocated. It's still the same size though. So, yeah, I need some help to be able to get back into Windows please. Could I just resize my Windows partition back to the size it was before I partitioned it to instal Ubuntu (which was the whole drive)?

Saxon · 02-08-2008, 05:39 PM

You will have to remove the boot loader. More info here.

DarkMassacre · 02-08-2008, 05:45 PM

Well ****, I don't have the XP CD at the moment

Edit: Since when was cussing edited on this forum?!

Saxon · 02-08-2008, 05:51 PM

Last upgrade as far as i know, where did your disk go? If your PC is of the shop baught type try using the recovery partition.

DarkMassacre · 02-08-2008, 06:19 PM

I'm just going to re-install Ubuntu. I'm going to format my Hard drive soon anyway. Right now I just can't back it up. I just want to make sure I don't format my Windows partition, so could you inform me if I'm safe or not? I took a screenshot of what you should be able to make sense of, me, I'm just learning about partitioning.

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/2...enshot1iv5.png

Nitestick · 02-11-2008, 10:53 AM

you should be able to use partition editing software to mark the windows partition active then it will just boot into windows as if it were the only OS. you could have just installed the new distro over the top of ubuntu and formatted the ubuntu partition during install.

mBernhardt · 02-12-2008, 03:51 PM

It sounds like when you installed Ubuntu you installed the boot loader to the /boot folder rather than the master boot record. The, when you deleted/formatted/pooched your ext*/Ubuntu partition you effectively blew away your bootloader. Which is why it would error out.

You can either run the "fixmbr"/"fixboot" from the Windows XP CD. (Should you find one) You can also run through the procedure to reinstall the boot loader to the master boot record. (Google that one, its a bit more involved) Or, reinstall Ubuntu. (Which will do the last mentioned step)

Although now that I think about it you may need an active ext2/3 partition in order to install the GRUB. (Or LiLO if that's your poison)

In short, just (re)install whatever Linux OS you want to try (taking care not to blow away XP) and you'll be fine.

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