Unbootable Laptop after GRUB removal

[keith dewitt]

Recovery disk for Vista:
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

fixmbr didn't work smoothly for me either. I had to do a clean install
of xp, if that's an option. If you lost your disk and have your vista
key, its possible to download it and burn to disk. There should be a
torrent availible.

Keith

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 1:56 AM, James Matthews <nytrokiss at gmail.com> wrote:
> If you have a windows install disk (Or can download a windows recovery disk)
> then you enter recovery mode (Boot from the CD and press R at the first
> prompt (After the the driver loading) and then type in fixmbr and it should
> do it for you.
>
> On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 2:59 PM, Abhischek Thottakara
> <abhischek_t at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>> I have an unbootable laptop because I removed GRUB by formating my Ubuntu
>> 64-Bit partition. I know that you need to restore the Vista MBR to get a
>> bootable machine again but I do not have a recovery cd so I researched on
>> the Internet and found a way using the UBUNTU- Live CD. I followed the
>> instructions on this webpage http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=622828
>> the exact commands were:
>>
>> sudo apt-get install syslinux
>> sudo dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda
>>
>>
>> and
>>
>> sudo apt-get install mbr
>> sudo install-mbr -i n -p D -t 0 /dev/sda
>>
>>
>> Both commands did not work that's why I tried both, it said that they
>> completed successfully but I could not boot Vista again. Now the Grub error
>> was gone but the machine said MBR 123FA with a blinking cursor. At that time
>> I did not know what that was and I got totally desperate because I thought I
>> deleted my Vista partition. So I googled again and found a forum where
>> someone had quite the same problem and she solved it using "SUPERGRUBDISK"
>> http://www.supergrubdisk.org/. I downloaded the iso, burned it and started
>> the cd, then I went to the windows section on the cd and selected the Option
>> Restore Windows MBR, then there was a Menu where it said remove GRUB and
>> restore Windows MBR it prompted me to select the OS which was installed
>> before Linux and the only thing I could select was called "SYSLINUX"  I have
>> know idea what that is and in my despair I selected it hoping that it would
>> restore Vista MBR. But now the laptop is even "more unbootable" because when
>> I start the laptop it says: ""BOOTMGR is missing, Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to
>> restart". " Again I researched on the Internet where I found many advices
>> saying the only way is getting an recovery cd. So I called my friend who has
>> a recovery cd for his laptop but which is only 32- Bit. I started the cd and
>> went to "REPAIR COMPUTER" option. The first thing I noticed that there was
>> no entry for previous Vista Installations to repair but as the "internet"
>> said I opened Recovery Console or "Repair Command & Prompt" as it is called
>> now and used all three commands which were: "bootrec /fixmbr, bootrec
>> /fixboot, bootrec /rebuildbcd". The first two completed successfully, but
>> the third failed with the output something like this: "No Windows Version,
>> and some numbers I can't quite remember". But it changed nothing my Laptop
>> is still unbootable with the message "BOOTMGR is missing..."
>>
>> Please help me I am grateful for all the help I can get!
>> Thanks in advance
>> Abhischek
>>
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