shonuff

ok let me explain from the beginning. i am a windows user and i decided to try linux out. so i got the ubuntu distro and installed it on my backup hard drive. everything worked just fine. BUT. i decided that i didn't want linux on that hd anymore so i tried to uninstall it. the problem is that i can't get rid of the GRUB boot loader. it is written to my master boot record on my main HD. i have tried everything i could find online. when i try from DOS the fdisk /mbr command it tells me "error: can't save original MBR. Operation unsuccessful." well that sucks, so i try the next thing i see. using the windows recovery thing. so i load the windows cd and when it says press 'r' for recovery center, i do so and then the computer just restarts. this may be because i have service pack 2 installed but the disk is an original without the SP2, i don't really know. anyways does anyone have any suggestions. i have heard some tell me to just format both drives but i originally used the one as a backup for all my stuff but then just put that stuff on my windows drive for this linux experiment. so if i format both i lose EVERYTHING. PLEASE HELP!!!!!

eh i tried the mandrake thing. when i selected to restore windows bootloader it said that no known linux boot loader found.

ah i see its a distro of linux ok cool im dl'ing it right now and i'll try it out. let you know what happens.

im not quite sure what mandrake is. can someone give me an idea so i know what to look for?

ok i'll try to answer the questions in order. windows is on the primary drive. one is 30gb and one is 120gb so they are hard to confuse. the windows installations has only been on there for about 2 weeks, and yes when i installed ubuntu on the secondary drive i was able to use grub to boot into both windows and ubuntu. in fact i can still boot into both of them just fine, but as soon as i "uninstall" ubuntu, by which i mean use my maxtor cd to format that secondary hard drive into a storage drive, thats when i start getting all the errors. those errors also occured when i tried installing fedora core on that drive instead. and with fedora core i even chose the option to rewrite that grub. now you asked what image i used for the boot cd. well i never selected one, i only chose from a menu on nero, "create bootable cd" and the i clicked burn. that was it. yes when i installed ubuntu i allowed it to put grub on the main HD MBR. each installation was in fact on the secondary drive. im currently typing this on the windows installation on hda. no i have no program like partition magic. now what you were saying about recovering my files. are you saying to install windows on my secondary drive. then copy the files over to that drive. then reinstall it on the first drive, copy the files back, then format the second drive? i would like ot keep my main HD as the 120gb one. also, if i do that is it possible that i get a grub error as soon as linux is not on there again? thanx alot for all your help.

anyone?

hey if im just screwed and there's nothing i can do, can someone please at least tell me how i might be able to access my documents and such on my windows drive from within linux and vice versa. thanx.

i should probably let you know about this too. in case it means anything. the distro of linux that i have is ubuntu. i tried fedora/redhat but when it was finished installing i got a grub error 15 on startup of computer, it would not pass that part, couldn't start the computer.

for the boot disc i just used nero and made a cd rom boot disk because my floppy drive is screwed at the moment.

i built this system myself actually. asus mobo, intel cpu, its a fairly new system (3.06 processor), maybe a year or 2 old. i used a DOS boot disc to get to DOS. when i do fdisk /mbr, it gives me a menu. one of the selections is to restore the MBR and when i select that is when i get that error message. thanx alot.

please can anyone help?

yes i tried all that and when i hit 'r' it started to do something then just restarted the computer. i don't get it. yes i have a windows pro cd but it is from before SP1. thanx.