Long, sad story made short.

I have a Samsung Netbook running Windows XP Home, SP3.

I set it up to dual boot with Ubuntu, just so I could play around with
Ubuntu.

Well, Ubuntu started giving me trouble: my internet connection went
south,
I was unable to adjust the brightness of the Netbook screen, etc., and
when
I looked for troubleshooting help on the internet, it was all Greek to
me as
it involved working with Terminal.

I did a search for removing a partition in Windows XP and found "How
to use
Disk Management to configure basic disks in Windows XP" on the
Microsoft and
followed the instructions there.

Now, when I try to boot the Netbook, I get this:
GRUB loading.
error: no such partition
grub rescue>

When I research what this means, the solutions, all on Linux sites are
baffling.

So...

I cloned my Netbook HD about a month ago to an external HD.

How would I go about erasing the HD of the Netbook and cloning back to
the Netbook HD the
operating system from the external HD? Is this possible?

Remember, Netbooks do not come with an optical drive.

Many thanks.

How you recover / restore your clone would depend on the program you used to
create that clone.
If you haven't purchased an external cd/dvd then copying an application to
usb stick generally enables you to run that application.

"Bob" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:7a61a88e-0f5c-4875-b266-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Long, sad story made short.
>
> I have a Samsung Netbook running Windows XP Home, SP3.
>
> I set it up to dual boot with Ubuntu, just so I could play around with
> Ubuntu.
>
> Well, Ubuntu started giving me trouble: my internet connection went
> south,
> I was unable to adjust the brightness of the Netbook screen, etc., and
> when
> I looked for troubleshooting help on the internet, it was all Greek to
> me as
> it involved working with Terminal.
>
> I did a search for removing a partition in Windows XP and found "How
> to use
> Disk Management to configure basic disks in Windows XP" on the
> Microsoft and
> followed the instructions there.
>
> Now, when I try to boot the Netbook, I get this:
> GRUB loading.
> error: no such partition
> grub rescue>
>
> When I research what this means, the solutions, all on Linux sites are
> baffling.
>
> So...
>
> I cloned my Netbook HD about a month ago to an external HD.
>
> How would I go about erasing the HD of the Netbook and cloning back to
> the Netbook HD the
> operating system from the external HD? Is this possible?
>
> Remember, Netbooks do not come with an optical drive.
>
> Many thanks.

Bob,

You may be able to fix your computer without reinstalling Windows. Check out
this article on fixing your Master Boot Record:
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/44/ma...br_fix_repair/

Milt

"Bob" wrote:

> Long, sad story made short.
>
> I have a Samsung Netbook running Windows XP Home, SP3.
>
> I set it up to dual boot with Ubuntu, just so I could play around with
> Ubuntu.
>
> Well, Ubuntu started giving me trouble: my internet connection went
> south,
> I was unable to adjust the brightness of the Netbook screen, etc., and
> when
> I looked for troubleshooting help on the internet, it was all Greek to
> me as
> it involved working with Terminal.
>
> I did a search for removing a partition in Windows XP and found "How
> to use
> Disk Management to configure basic disks in Windows XP" on the
> Microsoft and
> followed the instructions there.
>
> Now, when I try to boot the Netbook, I get this:
> GRUB loading.
> error: no such partition
> grub rescue>
>
> When I research what this means, the solutions, all on Linux sites are
> baffling.
>
> So...
>
> I cloned my Netbook HD about a month ago to an external HD.
>
> How would I go about erasing the HD of the Netbook and cloning back to
> the Netbook HD the
> operating system from the external HD? Is this possible?
>
> Remember, Netbooks do not come with an optical drive.
>
> Many thanks.
> .
>

This really sounds like a simple enough problem caused by Ubuntu having re-written
the Master Boot Record (MBR). Windows will most likely still exist as it was on it's
own partition.

To try to rectify this, start your PC with the appropriate XP Installation cd-rom in
the drive, and when prompted to do so, press [R] to "Repair using Recovery Console"

When the recovery console starts, choose the Windows installation (usually by typing
"1") and press [ENTER]

It will then ask you for the Administrator password. Unless you have set this
differently yourself, it will not normally be set and you can just press [ENTER] to
proceed.

Once "in" Recovery Console, type the command : FIXMBR then [ENTER]

Then type EXIT then [ENTER] to reboot.

This should fix it.

If there is still a problem, repeat the above procedure to start Recovery Console
again, then type in the command : FIXBOOT C: then press [ENTER]

then again type EXIT then [ENTER] to reboot.

If the XP partition is still intact, then usually just following the first part of
this procedure should recover the MBR so that XP can be booted to again.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"Bob" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:7a61a88e-0f5c-4875-b266-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Long, sad story made short.
>
> I have a Samsung Netbook running Windows XP Home, SP3.
>
> I set it up to dual boot with Ubuntu, just so I could play around with
> Ubuntu.
>
> Well, Ubuntu started giving me trouble: my internet connection went
> south,
> I was unable to adjust the brightness of the Netbook screen, etc., and
> when
> I looked for troubleshooting help on the internet, it was all Greek to
> me as
> it involved working with Terminal.
>
> I did a search for removing a partition in Windows XP and found "How
> to use
> Disk Management to configure basic disks in Windows XP" on the
> Microsoft and
> followed the instructions there.
>
> Now, when I try to boot the Netbook, I get this:
> GRUB loading.
> error: no such partition
> grub rescue>
>
> When I research what this means, the solutions, all on Linux sites are
> baffling.
>
> So...
>
> I cloned my Netbook HD about a month ago to an external HD.
>
> How would I go about erasing the HD of the Netbook and cloning back to
> the Netbook HD the
> operating system from the external HD? Is this possible?
>
> Remember, Netbooks do not come with an optical drive.
>
> Many thanks.

On Apr 16, 4:03*am, "DL" <inva...@nowhere.com> wrote:
> How you recover / restore your clone would depend on the program you usedto
> create that clone.
> If you haven't purchased an external cd/dvd then copying an application to
> usb stick generally enables you to run that application.
>

The program I used is Seagate's DiscWizard for Windows which came free
from Seagate. It is an external Seagate HD to which I made the clone.

On Apr 16, 11:07*am, Milt <M...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> Bob,
>
> You may be able to fix your computer without reinstalling Windows. Check out
> this article on fixing your Master Boot Record:http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/44/ma...br_fix_repair/
>
Milt -

Thanks. I checkout the link, but the instructions are: Click Start,
Click Run.

I cannot get past the:
GRUB loading.
error: no such partition
grub rescue>

I can, however, by holding down f2, access the boot BIOS (hope that's
the right term).

On Apr 16, 2:09*pm, "Tim Meddick" <timmedd...@gawab.com> wrote:
> This really sounds like a simple enough problem caused by Ubuntu having re-written
> the Master Boot Record (MBR). *Windows will most likely still exist as it was on it's
> own partition.
>
> To try to rectify this, start your PC with the appropriate XP Installation cd-rom in
> the drive, and when prompted to do so, press [R] to "Repair using Recovery Console"
>
> When the recovery console starts, choose the Windows installation (usually by typing
> "1") and press [ENTER]
>
> It will then ask you for the Administrator password. *Unless you have set this
> differently yourself, it will not normally be set and you can just press [ENTER] to
> proceed.
>
> Once "in" Recovery Console, type the command : *FIXMBR then [ENTER]
>
> Then type EXIT then [ENTER] to reboot.
>
> This should fix it.
>
> If there is still a problem, repeat the above procedure to start RecoveryConsole
> again, then type in the command : FIXBOOT C: then press [ENTER]
>
> then again type EXIT then [ENTER] to reboot.
>
> If the XP partition is still intact, then usually just following the first part of
> this procedure should recover the MBR so that XP can be booted to again.
>
> ==

Thank you, Tim.

Unfortunately, the Netbooks do not have an optical drive and I do not
have an external disk drive into which I can put the Windows
Installation Disk.

I do have a Mac running Windows XP using VMWare. Is there any way to
boot up in Windows on that Mac and share its optical drive with the
Netbook? Put the Windows CD in the Mac's drive and use it to boot the
Netbook???

Bob,

Sorry about my earlier reply. I wasn't thinking!

I assume you have a USB port on the netbook, right? If so, might you be able
to make an emergency boot disk on it, using your Mac, in order to start the
netbook and restore/repair your boot file?

MIlt

"Bob" wrote:

> Long, sad story made short.
>
> I have a Samsung Netbook running Windows XP Home, SP3.
>
> I set it up to dual boot with Ubuntu, just so I could play around with
> Ubuntu.
>
> Well, Ubuntu started giving me trouble: my internet connection went
> south,
> I was unable to adjust the brightness of the Netbook screen, etc., and
> when
> I looked for troubleshooting help on the internet, it was all Greek to
> me as
> it involved working with Terminal.
>
> I did a search for removing a partition in Windows XP and found "How
> to use
> Disk Management to configure basic disks in Windows XP" on the
> Microsoft and
> followed the instructions there.
>
> Now, when I try to boot the Netbook, I get this:
> GRUB loading.
> error: no such partition
> grub rescue>
>
> When I research what this means, the solutions, all on Linux sites are
> baffling.
>
> So...
>
> I cloned my Netbook HD about a month ago to an external HD.
>
> How would I go about erasing the HD of the Netbook and cloning back to
> the Netbook HD the
> operating system from the external HD? Is this possible?
>
> Remember, Netbooks do not come with an optical drive.
>
> Many thanks.
> .
>

On Apr 17, 9:03*am, Milt <M...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> Bob,
>
> Sorry about my earlier reply. I wasn't thinking!
>
> I assume you have a USB port on the netbook, right? If so, might you be able
> to make an emergency boot disk on it, using your Mac, in order to start the
> netbook and restore/repair your boot file?
>
> MIlt
Hi Milt -

That is exactly what I am trying to do.

I have booted up my MacBook in Windows XP and am researching how to do
that.

I have found instructions on how to use UNetbootin to copy a version
of Ubuntu that will work on a flash drive to a flash drive.

It's a bit more complicated than I thought.

Should anyone else be interested and follow this thread, I'll post my
results here.

Thanks to all for your suggestions and input. Most welcome.

On Apr 17, 9:03*am, Milt <M...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> Bob,
>
> Sorry about my earlier reply. I wasn't thinking!
>
> I assume you have a USB port on the netbook, right? If so, might you be able
> to make an emergency boot disk on it, using your Mac, in order to start the
> netbook and restore/repair your boot file?
>
> MIlt

OK! Serious progress, at last.

I found and successfully followed instructions for making a bootable
flash drive, installed Ubuntu 9.10 on it, and my Netbook is now booted
from that flash drive.

I'd be profoundly grateful for advice on what should be my next step,
as I am in a bit over my head.

Thanks.

BTW, my ultimate objective here is to safely remove from the Netbook
the partition containing the dual bootable Ubuntu partition and to
return it to just running Windows XP.