Computer boots fine, but not the operative system...

[V1LL33]

Hello,
So, a few weeks ago, my computer shut down (I held down the power down button, not choosing shut down on my OS) Now, the computer boots fine, I can enter BIOS and it reads CMOS, but, when I load Gnu Grub (OS bootloader that followed with Ubuntu) and choose to boot Ubuntu/Linux I just get a black screen with some errors. When I tried to install windows xp the setup got the error "Setup cannot find file ....dll Setup cannot continue. The error code is *.
So, there is apperently something wrong with my motherboard. I have tried to remove the battery for a while and then tried to boot, I don't get the errors but just a black screen with a flashing _ for a eternity. (before it looked like that but it booted after a while) What should I do ? It's an old computer, it does not have SATA but ATA(that what's the grey, flat cable says) and is using 24 pin.

 

[Guest]

When you forced a shutdown of the system using the power button as you did, you basically CRASHED the system.

In other words, you Corrupted the Hard Drive. Linux drives can be corrupted just as easily as FAT & NTFS drives.

Being able to access the Grub Bootloader shows that the motherboard is just fine.

It's been a long time since I last messed around with Linux and even then, I used "Lilo", not "Gnu Grub"

From what I can tell, if you're going to do a fresh installation Windows XP will need to be installed on the first partition (partition 0) and the Grub loader will have to be reinstalled after Windows is installed. Ubuntu will need to be installed on the second partition (partition1).

I'm not familiar with Grub commands, so I wouldn't be able to help you there. But as long as the drive itself is still good, you should be able to repair the corruption and reinstall everything. Although you'll be lucky if you can save of your previous data.

Just remember, when you try to install Windows, you will need to set the first partition as Active (bootable) or the install may fail cause Windows can't see Linux partitions without a special driver.

Also, I'm just guessing here, but the easiest way might be to use a 98 Boot Floppy if you have one or can get ahold of one, then once you've booted to floppy, switch to the c:\ drive, the once you've done this, type "format /mbr" without the quotes.

After this you'll want to use the "sys" command.

just type sys/? and it'll give you the correct syntax for using it.

I think it was something like sys C:

Hope this all helps you out. Anything further, someone else will need to help you.