can't get back to windows XP, stuck on grub rescue prompt

**Chaimon** · December 30th, 2012

I have been running ubuntu 11 on a Toshiba laptop alongside windows XP. I (stupidly) DELETED the drive with ubuntu on it (in effort to uninstall ubuntu) and tried to combine the "unallocated" space to the c: drive for XP (did this while running XP). After restarting computer, I only get this:

ERROR: NO SUCH PARTITION.
GRUB RESCUE>_

Yes, little grub, I deleted that partition!!! Oops.

What I want is to boot into windows from the c: drive. But how?

I tried putting the original installation disc in the drive and rebooting, but no luck (computer does not "see" the disk. Has anyone had and resolved this problem?

More background info: I started out just trying to uninstall ubuntu, but it did not appear in any list of installed software. I read somewhere in these forums to delete the partition and that that would essentially do the job. Any ideas?

**xc3RnbFO8P** · December 31st, 2012

You can install Ubuntu again
or try Boot repair.....
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

**Chaimon** · January 6th, 2013

Thanks for reply. But I can't install anything, because the computer boots directly to the grub rescue prompt. I don't know grub commands, and can't find them online.

I tried the boot repair disk, but of course it had no effect (computer isn't reading the disk drive).

**xc3RnbFO8P** · January 6th, 2013

Originally Posted by Chaimon

Thanks for reply. But I can't install anything, because the computer boots directly to the grub rescue prompt. I don't know grub commands, and can't find them online.

I tried the boot repair disk, but of course it had no effect (computer isn't reading the disk drive).

can you not run Ubuntu from a live disk?

**Chaimon** · January 6th, 2013

No. I tried inserting the original ubuntu 11 disk (an .iso) and got nothing. Computer goes immediately to "grub rescue" prompt with error "no such partition".

Also -- what I find online says that to use a live disk you must "configure your computer to boot from the drive." I can't do that.