Get your Windows install media, load it , and goto the recovery console and enter FIXMBR or more usefully FIXBOOT which should blow away the grub installation. If you have lost your linux stuff not a lot of point keeping grub for the moment. When you replace the drive you can do a re-install from scratch.
Unfortunately, grub keeps its configuration files in the Linux file system (in /boot/grub). You loose the Linux drive you loose the menu. It is not that silly as installing grub gives Linux based utilities control over the boot process. Use loose Linux, you loose the facilities. I would expect grub to go into command line mode, (try typing c at the error) and you do have the alternative of being able to load XP from there. If you can get into command mode you should not need a floppy to work with this. The first thing to do is find which partition is the Windows boot partition. A command like find /boot.ini (this is a windows NT file that controls the boot process) May work .... (though I am not sure grub can read NTFS file systems). This if it does work will should return the drive info. The command sequence norootverify <partition> chainloader <partition> +1 boot should work. where <partition> is the windows boot partition should work here. However, there is a gotcha in that Windows expects to boot of the first partition and you may need to change grubs partition mapping. I believe the FIXMBR and FIXBOOT utilities are downloadable, dunno where from (dont do much with M$ nowadays) :-) So you should be able fix this from there. Doug McGarrett wrote: > I suppose this should go to the bugzilla thing, but I don't know how to get > there, and those who do that probably read here. > > On another computer, which is down partly for this reason, I had XP on the > first hard drive, and SuSE 10.0 on the second hard drive, using Grub for the > boot controller, and Reiser FS. > > It turned out that the second HD failed. Then it was impossible to boot the > system, since it seems that Grub portions out its booter between the first > and second drives. The first drive attempts to boot the system, but it comes > up with Grub, and then Grub error, and then you are in the pot. Nothing > will help, since part of Grub must be on the second drive, which has failed. > > (I have had some semi-professionals check out drive 2 and verify that it > failed. The Best-Buy Geek Squad. They don't seem to know very much about > Linux.) > > It's absolutely ridiculous that a boot manager should share its secrets over > two drives. This is an excellent example of why not. > > I need some kind of boot CD or DVD (or floppy) that can be run from a CD drive > that will restore the boot of the XP system. Or some kind of NTFS boot > disk. I think I need to have a program that will access the disk and > send it "FIX MBR" from some conversation some time ago, here. > The Geek Squad doesn't seem to know how to do any of this. And I don't > either. > > I would be happy to pay for the floppy or CD that would make the XP machine > work again. It will never have Linux on it anymore, but I have this machine, > with its own problems running Linux, and until I couldn't print, fairly > happily. > > --doug > > > > > >
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