[ehababoud]

hi,

i've been looking all over the net and even tried other forums especially made for ubuntu but they're not only slow to reply but i have no skilled advice, unlike here. anyways this is the whole issue:

i fell in love with linux so decided to dual-boot and added many distributions but loved ubuntu, so i added 8.10 (the latest release at the time) and it didn't work, grub never worked great. so i removed the partition and used some windows software thing to remove the grub. i installed a few weeks later via wubi, worked great but i've always been waiting for 9.04 so it came a week ago and i wanted to upgrade, but doing so on a wubi installation is incredibly difficult and time consuming.
so i found out how to transfer to a separate partition so i done that with a piece of software. grub worked this time but didn't load the new partition that was installed with the linux distribution. so i went back into my wubi distribution and removed the partition (foolishly) and now grub just shows me errors and doesn't allow me to even have the option of entering my vista/ubuntu [wubi] dual boot MBR screen.

i am posting this using a 8.10 live cd i found lying around and this is the only way i can access anything on my computer. when i try to boot grub now it gives me error 22, when i enter the terminal in the live cd and try to fix grub it gives me error 15.

sorry for the long and complicated story but i wanted to give as much information as possible.

any help would be greatly appreciated

thanks in advance

ehababoud

 

[Bartender]

Do you have a genuine Vista install CD, or just recovery DVD's? I'd say that your difficulties getting into Vista are almost certainly due to the Master Boot Record getting messed up.
Google how to "repair vista mbr". I think you can do it with a Super Grub Disc. There are probably a dozen other methods. But focus on trying to fix your MBR first. Once you get Vista working you can decide whether to try partitioning again or not.

Did you burn recovery DVD's? Please tell me you did. If nothing else you can at least wipe the drive with your recovery discs and start over.

EDIT: Wait a couple months before trying 9.04 again.

 

[ehababoud]

hi thanks for your speedy reply. The only thing I forgot to mention is the windows disc issue. With my laptop I didn't get one but as you so rightly mentioned, I've got a hp recovery disc. Although you did mention removing everything off the system, which I really want to avoid as much as I can. Would you be able to possibly talk me through what I have to do with the recovery discs? Because I don't want to do anymore damage than I already have :laugh:

Thanks

Ehab