9 replies to this topic

[tak1968]

Last night my son's lappy went nuts. I know he puts useless crap on there, so i knew this time would come

he has put like 3 different OS's on there, and god knows what else

i did the recovery disks 2x last night in hopes that it would wipe his comp clean and restore it to facory settings but to no avail

when turning on comp i get this message on a purple screen (ill try to be as accurate as possible...


GNU GRUB version 1.99~rc1-13ubuntu3

then theres a box with these options to highlight...

Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic
Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic (recovery mode)
Previous Linux Versions
Memory Test (memtest86+)
Memory Test (memtest+, serial console 115200)
Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sal)

Upon clicking the windows 7 option, this purple screen shows up...


error: no such device
error: no suck disk

then it brings me right back to the first screen

He has a Gateway NV53
AMD Athalon II x2
500 GB HDD
4 GB Memory

I sorry if i sound dumb, but if i used the recovery discs, why is the screen showing up showing what OS's are still installed when its supposed to wipe it clean? any help getting rid of this crap on here is appreciared ty!

[ArticTheTiger]

So the Grub bootloader knows that Windows 7 used to be installed, however it is not now. You need to reinstall the bootloader from a windows 7 disk (original, not recovery) this will make the bootloader the default windows bootmgr, pssibly the recovery would work on this version, but I cant guarantee that.

[Waser Lave]

You probably need to edit the GRUB config file so you're probably better off finding somebody who knows about Linux to do it for you rather than trying to do it yourself.

(if you just want to be able to do something on the computer in the meantime you should be able to boot into Ubuntu)

[tak1968]

all we got with the comp is a system disk and 2 recovery disks and a language disk. i did them in the oder it wanted... system, recovery 1, recovery 2, language, recovery 1

there was no stand alone windows 7 disk with it


so im prob going to have to take it to a proffessional? how much (a range) is that to cost me? im not rich! lol



(if you just want to be able to do something on the computer in the meantime you should be able to boot into Ubuntu)

does that mean if he can get on and totally delete this linux crap, his comp would be ok?

i dont understand the need for multiple OS's and he cant give me an answer either lol

[Scot]

This is probably the long way but I think it will work. Download a pirate copy of windows 7 and boot it. Then use the interface to format every partition to get rid of everything including the grub bootloader, then merge the remaining partitions into 1.

If you don't feel comfortable with a pirate windows, you can probably use a trial version in lieu of a pirate version. Just swap discs and boot the recovery cd.

[Waser Lave]

(if you just want to be able to do something on the computer in the meantime you should be able to boot into Ubuntu)

does that mean if he can get on and totally delete this linux crap, his comp would be ok?

i dont understand the need for multiple OS's and he cant give me an answer either lol

Technically it could be as simple as GRUB just looking in the wrong place for the Windows partition which can be fixed by editing the config file but I don't know what he was doing on the computer before it broke so it's difficult to know for certain the cause.

[tak1968]

waser.. he was playing Minecraft rofl and browsing the se7ensins forums.. he lives at those 2 places

also i been looking for a net for a win7 64-bit torrent and cannot find one, if anyone can point me in that direction would be great.. can i download it on my comp and put it on a flash drive and have him boot from that?

he knows more abt these things than i but hes at school now

Edited by tak1968, 12 May 2011 - 04:27 AM.

[Waser Lave]

You can't talk about warez on the boards, that be illegal.

[tak1968]

good news! ty for all your help! i found a version xDark Deluxe online for him... comes with a ton of shit that he uses and likes already pre-installed. i put it on a flash drive and he installed it and all went well. im not sure how he is going to format it, he has yet to do that yet, hes playing angry birds atm LOL

your help was awesome and will keep these suggestions in mind if we ever have this issue again

ty

Tina