ISSUE: when booting on dual-boot hdd, i can't get past the "grub recovery>" prompt. Commands such as "help" etc are not recognized. "ls" works, as does "set root" and "set prefix". I tried resetting the root and prefix to every hd/msdos to no avail.
BACKGROUND: I loaded ubuntu desktop about 5-6 weeks ago on an old XP tower & it worked fine. I swapped out hdd's to try loading the Ubuntu Server version, & it too worked fine. When I swapped back to the dual-boot drive, I forgot to remove the Ubuntu Server boot disk, and also forgot to edit the boot sequence. As a result, Ubuntu server tried to load on top of Ub. Desktop version, & it hasn't booted right since.
I am very new to non-Windows OS's, I am not familiar with either version of Ubuntu at all (trying to gain familiarity!). I have tried many of the things I have read in these forums.
My thoughts are to go into Windows XP Recovery Console & reformat the whole drive & then reload XP, then Ub. Desktop (already tried repairing Windows, but don't think Windows was ever messed up to begin with). However I don't know if XP will accept my verification code, but I digress....
Plz help! Thanks!
Update
I actually used my WinXP disk to get into Recovery Console; from there I used "diskpart" to view all partitions, then used "dir X:" to figure out which ones were XP partitions, then went back to "diskpart" and deleted the non-windows partitions. Tried to reboot with just XP on there but got nothing (completely blank screen-not even a cursor). From there I popped in the Ub.Desk. boot cd, rebooted, and it appears to be installing just fine. It recognized XP, and I am trying the dual-boot option. It's installing as I write so we'll see how it goes..
Well, it SEEMED to install fine, but rebooting resulted in the same completely blank screen. Tried running UbDsktop from CD, and at least now I can do that. Tried gparted, but I don't how to post screenshots... (DUH! Edit/update the post--ok nvmd; anti-spam mech prevents me as a new user from posting images)
UPDATE 12-22-12
Long story short-booted from Ub. CD, used gparted to reformat the HDD w/UbServer, then installed Ub.Desktop on that HDD. Booted that HDD with the other (dual-boot, problem) HDD hooked up, and used gparted to reformat the messed up Ubuntu partitions to ntfs. Tried to reboot that one to see if XP would boot--> didn't work. Rebooted that same disk with Ub.CD and used "Try Something Else" install option to reformat those partitions and re-install Ub.Desktop. Install was almost done when screen went black; after waiting a few min, nothing happened so restarted, & I get "No such partition""grub recovery>" msg.
When I boot the good HDD I can still access folders and files in the dualboot/messed-up HDD, but cant get that one to boot at all. When time permits (Christmas/family activities...) I plan to try repairing windows boot.ini. If all else fails, I backed up all those files a while back, so I may just reformat the whole thing & try to re-install XP from scratch & go from there....
