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Okay, I had a desktop completely running on Ubuntu 12.04. No dual boot at all.

I wanna re-install it because of some complications. Now I know there are many methods out there, but none could work so I decided to start all over. Format the hard drive. Like its fresh out of the box.

After formatting the drive, why does GRUB (error message) still appear when I boot the PC? It is part of the motherboard?! Or do I need to do a full format to erase Ubuntu from the hard drive completely?

All I wanna do is to start from scratch. Can anyone help? I am not attempting to FULL FORMAT the hard drive in my Windows laptop. Is this correct? Is NTFS file system the correct one to use?

I just want to get my hard drive like its out of the box. From there, its all good.

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What do want to reinstall windows or ubuntu? – Web-E Aug 23 '12 at 18:08

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Grub is still present on your HDD in MBR. It is the part of disc where system looks on startup to determnine what to start. It shold be rewtitten when you reinstall your system.

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How do you do that? – Chris Aug 23 '12 at 18:32
If you have Ubuntu 12.04 on a CD, DVD, or flashdrive, just boot into that, and you'll be given the choice of installing Ubuntu or booting from the LiveCD (or whatever). Choose to install it, answer the prompts that come up, and when it installs, it will overwrite the old GRUB that's still there. You'll end up with a clean install, fresh out of the box. – Kelley Aug 23 '12 at 19:26
I have reformatted my hard drive, rebuilt by MBR using EaseUS. When I launch the desktop, its still says error unknown filesystem grub error. – Chris Aug 24 '12 at 0:20
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You're going to want to re-install Ubuntu (don't worry about clearing your MBR). Use the CD, DVD, or USB stick you used to originally install. Doing that should just do it, nothing else should be necessary.

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