"Grub loading ...Error 18" - HD's not accessible any more. (Kubuntu Karmic/ WinXP)

[Tom H]

>> A few days ago, something went fundamentally wrong at my desktop PC.  The
>> system gut stuck. The only option left was unplugging the PC and restarting
>> it. But each following attempt to normally restart the PC already stagnates
>> in the very beginning as follows:
>> GRUB Loading stage 1.5
>> GRUB loading, please wait .....
>> Error 18
>> Already after 'Error 18',  nothing happens any more. Every restart attempt
>> ends up in again 'Error 18'.
>> My question is now: what can I do to get access to the 2 hard disks in
>> order to:
>> * copy the KMAIL address book to the external hard disk;
>> * compress all the other data files to ZIP archives at the external hard
>> disk;
>> .... with a view to repartioning/ reformatting the two HD's and
>> fresh-installingboth WinXP and Kubuntu
>> So far, I have tried the following. A few times, I ran a live version of
>> Kubuntu 9.10 from a USB stick. There, I tried to access the hard disks via
>> Dolphin. But I do not manage to do so, so far.
>> I am wondering whether there is some simple workaround in order to rescue
>> the grub - via a command line?

> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2
> Go to #11 on the sidebar

Since you are getting a
"GRUB Loading stage 1.5"
you must have grub1 as your boot loader. To re-install grub1, you
should mount your install disk, remount /dev, /dev/pts, /dev/shm,
/proc, /sys, chroot into your install, and run grub-install and
update-grub.

If you want to upgrade to grub2, you should also chroot into your
install and install it with apt-get or aptitude. Running "grub-install
--root-directory ..." from a live CD might install and set up grub2
but I doubt that apt will like it once you are back up and running
your install.