GRUB Error, can't find the Recovery Screen!

[boothruwindow]

I know there are lots of posts on this already, but I need more help with the one by Kipper, which should work for if I could just find my way to a Recovery screen! Maybe Xubuntu works different. Anyway, I have GRUB blocking my hard drive after I did an installation just to my Sandisk pen drive! So, I have that error when I try to boot my hard disk, doesn't matter whether my CD is in the drive. There is no opportunity to type in anything like "Recovery" at any prompt, just the error message. When I F12 and select my CD to boot into, I get the following menu:

Try Ubuntu...
Install Ubuntu
Check CD for defects
Test Memory
Boot from first hard disk

I checked the F4 and F6 options for each of these, and saw nothing on recovery. So, I need more details on how to actually access that screen with recovery options. I've seen such a screen before with a recovery option when I had a dual-boot system (Ubuntu Ibex and Vista), but I only knew how to access it from the hard disk, and GRUB won't let me near it now. The directions I've seen so far aren't helping me, if it makes any difference I'm using 8.10 - please help!

[Pumalite]

Do you see Grub or you get an error message? If error message; post it exactly as it appears.

[cholericfun]

wild guess:
(happens to the best of us)

HD not recognised

boot from CD Live and check if you can access your HD
properly.
if not:
install gpartet
reboot.

run the check/fix on all partitions

if that doesnt work there is some magic boot file manager out there that wil help you rewrite the boot part and enable you to access all the OSs that you have installed. ... unfortuatly i happen to have forgotten the name... googel is your frined... something with S

[boothruwindow]

Do you see Grub or you get an error message? If error message; post it exactly as it appears.

What I see is GRUB, with an error - not always the same number, so far I've seen 23, 25, 21.

[boothruwindow]

wild guess:
(happens to the best of us)

HD not recognised

boot from CD Live and check if you can access your HD
properly.

I tried that, and can't - xubuntu doesn't see that hard drive, in the File Browser, but the partitioning window seems to understand something's there.

if not:
install gpartet
reboot.

What should I install it on? Can a burned CD take the program, or will I have to use my flash drive (can't access the HD)?

Well, maybe I shouldn't expect to see in the Xbuntu file browser what I saw in Ubuntu, but the /media folder is empty!

run the check/fix on all partitions

if that doesnt work there is some magic boot file manager out there that wil help you rewrite the boot part and enable you to access all the OSs that you have installed. ... unfortuatly i happen to have forgotten the name... googel is your frined... something with S

[cholericfun]

do the fix/check option from the LiveCD
gparted should be in the system-admin menu

[cholericfun]

[QUOTE=cholericfun;6935134]

boot from CD Live and check if you can access your HD
properly.
if not:
install gpartet
reboot.

run the check/fix on all partitions


ok, that was a stupid comment...
obviously doesnt work while in Live Cd mode...

-cross out the reboot part above

[cholericfun]

PS:
rereading your original post again...

what are you actually doing?

no CDs in the drive / USB attached - booting up?

what do you get?

[boothruwindow]

do the fix/check option from the LiveCD
gparted should be in the system-admin menu

Oh, there was something where I would least expect it! The bad news is that when I tried running System>Partition>Check (that's how it's set up in Xbuntu) it crashed with an error when it checked my system drive. I tried this on both my system , and my extended Fat32 drive, and neither are accessible for that now.

I just tried the umount -a command, which has fixed problems before. Xubuntu failed to do this, said that all the drives are "busy" - other than busy stealing the user's time, what?

Is there a program available which I may be able to run from USB?

[cholericfun]

ok, i got little knowledge, especially bout Xubuntu,

in the LiveCD after a fresh restart / terminal
type
sudo fdisk -l

post the output here
to see if it catches anything of your HD

might be worth to open up your box and plug in your HD in somewhere else (had to do that myself once)

not sure if Xubuntu uses gparted, try installing it in the Live, and run it - at least to see it IT can see any of your HD