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    #1

    Help -- I can't boot

    Been running edgy eft for a while in a dual boot configuration. I have all linux partitions on a separate physical hdd slaved off my main windows hdd. I got a new laptop. My family doesn't like linux, and I have it on my laptop, so I was going to reclaim that linux hdd and use it in an external setup. So I pulled the hdd, and tried to boot up to windows -- oops -- forgot about grub and all that, so I put the hdd back in the original configuration with the intention of uninstalling grub and linux, but now I still get an "operating system error", and I can't boot.

    2 questions: #1 - is there a quick fix for this, or do I need to re-install grub. Even though I'm a dork sometimes I'm not afraid of the command line, and I can usually figure out how to edit the config files.

    #2 - once I get the machine to boot, what is the proper way to get that hdd out and return it to its original Windoze only configuration.

    Thanks for any help.
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    #2
    Re: Help -- I can't boot

    So let me get this straight: you have 2 computers at home, your laptop and your family computer, and your family computer is running Windows on its built-in hard drive with linux installed on an external hard drive. You want to remove the external drive and connect it to your laptop, but when you removed it you now have an issue with your family computer and it can't boot. Am I right on this?
    CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL!!!
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      #3
      Re: Help -- I can't boot

      GRUB stuff, re-installing it, etc. (easy stuff, don’t worry):

      How To GRUB Methods - Toolkit
      http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0
      (Scroll down for more topics in separate posts)

      Bigpond, GRUB: http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzo...system_Entries
      (Classic for GRUB, dual boot)


      To restore Windows, use the Windows CD to fix the MBR.


      (Also:
      How To Make GRUB Thumb Drive
      http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081748.0
      How to install K/Ubuntu 7.04 to an external USB hard disk drive (HDD). )

      An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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        #4
        Re: Help -- I can't boot

        Originally posted by AceInTheHole
        So let me get this straight: you have 2 computers at home, your laptop and your family computer, and your family computer is running Windows on its built-in hard drive with linux installed on an external hard drive. You want to remove the external drive and connect it to your laptop, but when you removed it you now have an issue with your family computer and it can't boot. Am I right on this?
        Not quite -- I put an extra internal drive in the family computer to run linux. I am taking that extra internal drive out to convert it to an external drive. Linux and I assume Grub with it were installed on that drive that I took out. When it wouldn't boot, I put it back in the original configuration and it is still not booting. I figured it messed something up in Grub.
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          #5
          Re: Help -- I can't boot

          The external drive will see itself as (hd0,0), not as the second drive (or whatever). So the GRUB there must reflect that.
          Your BIOS must support USB booting.
          You must Enable USB booting in BIOS and set it to boot first from that external USB HDD when it is connected.

          I just did this and wrote it up at:

          How To Make GRUB Thumb Drive
          http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081748.0
          How to install K/Ubuntu 7.04 to an external USB hard disk drive (HDD).
          (Scroll to the second post, August 14, 2007.)
          USB experiment: USB drive shifting
          (Agust 19, 2007 post)

          General GRUB methods (like editing the GRUB configuration boot menu):
          How To GRUB Methods - Toolkit
          http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0

          An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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            #6
            Re: Help -- I can't boot

            Solved -- turns out I forgot about the jumpers on th back of the drives. I don't normally use the "cable select" mode, so I manually set the master and slave. WD hard drives have a setting called "master w/ slave" that I had used. When it loses the slave, somehow the bios reads that there are no drives available. Evidently, this somehow messed up the settings in Grub. I tried the grub help sites and followed the instructions, but I couldn't even mount the drives in grub when using a live cd. So I re-installed Kubuntu and just let the install go far enough that I figured the MBR had been overwritten, then I stopped it and rebooted. Grub came up and let me boot into Windows. I then re-formatted my linux drive from windows. After turning the cpu off, and taking it out, I had to reset the jumpers before I could get it restarted. Turns out Grub works fine as a windows boot-loader also. If there are no linux partitions, it doesn't ask what OS to start, you just go straight into windows and you never know that it is there.

            Thanks for the replies.
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