Recovery Console/DOS can't find HDD to repair MBR

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G

Guest

Hi.
I installed the GNU GRUB boot loader when I was experimenting with Ubuntu,
but I didn't make any recovery disks. Now, I've grown tired of Ubuntu
sitting uselessly on my HDD (Windows is more useful for what I do), but I
can't wipe its partition without upsetting GRUB. The deal is that my HDD's
MBR points to GRUB over in the Linux partition, so I need to change it back
to point at NTLDR.
So, I installed the recovery console, but it does not work. I can load the
NTLDR menu, select the Recovery Console, and the progress bar will go all the
way to the right, but then I get a blue screen of death.

Unfortunately, my computer didn't come with a Windows install disk, but when
I borrowed a friend's, the recovery console that comes with the XP install
disk couldn't find any HDD in my system.

I can and do load into windows successfully, but it would be nice to free up
the 15 gb of space.

Technical info about my system:
Gateway NX560 laptop
HDD: SATA 100 gb (not sure if it's SATA 1.5 gbs or 3.0 gbs)
BIOS: Phoenix 71.06
Windows XP Professional SP2
I don't have a floppy drive installed, but I can boot from CDs or USB flash
drives

Partition 1: Windows XP (primary)
Partition 2: Ubuntu (primary)
Partition 3: Linux swapdisk (extended)

So the question boils down to: How can I get access to a DOS-like terminal
that has the FDISK command?
 
Phazonmutant said:
Hi.
I installed the GNU GRUB boot loader when I was experimenting with Ubuntu,
but I didn't make any recovery disks. Now, I've grown tired of Ubuntu
sitting uselessly on my HDD (Windows is more useful for what I do), but I
can't wipe its partition without upsetting GRUB. The deal is that my
HDD's
MBR points to GRUB over in the Linux partition, so I need to change it
back
to point at NTLDR.
So, I installed the recovery console, but it does not work. I can load
the
NTLDR menu, select the Recovery Console, and the progress bar will go all
the
way to the right, but then I get a blue screen of death.

Unfortunately, my computer didn't come with a Windows install disk, but
when
I borrowed a friend's, the recovery console that comes with the XP install
disk couldn't find any HDD in my system.

I can and do load into windows successfully, but it would be nice to free
up
the 15 gb of space.

Technical info about my system:
Gateway NX560 laptop
HDD: SATA 100 gb (not sure if it's SATA 1.5 gbs or 3.0 gbs)
BIOS: Phoenix 71.06
Windows XP Professional SP2
I don't have a floppy drive installed, but I can boot from CDs or USB
flash
drives

Partition 1: Windows XP (primary)
Partition 2: Ubuntu (primary)
Partition 3: Linux swapdisk (extended)

So the question boils down to: How can I get access to a DOS-like terminal
that has the FDISK command?
Click to expand...

Simple: Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk from www.bootdisk.com.
 
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