Grub Error 21

[caljohnsmith]

TestDisk 6.9, Data Recovery Utility, February 2008
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sda - 80 GB / 74 GiB - CHS 9729 255 63
     Partition               Start        End    Size in sectors
P HPFS - NTFS              0   1  1   911 254 63   14651217 [Recovery Partition]
D FAT32 LBA              765   1  1  9728 254 63  144006597 [NO NAME]
* HPFS - NTFS            912   0  1  4559 254 63   58605120 [VAIO]
L HPFS - NTFS           4560   1  1  9728 254 63   83039922 [VAIO]

Structure: Ok.  Use Up/Down Arrow keys to select partition.
Use Left/Right Arrow keys to CHANGE partition characteristics:
*=Primary bootable  P=Primary  L=Logical  E=Extended  D=Deleted
Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, T: change type, P: list files,
     Enter: to continue
NTFS, 7501 MB / 7153 MiB

OK, using your up/down arrow keys, select each partition above, then move the right/left arrow keys to mark them as I have above with "P", "D", "*", and "L" as shown. Based on the info you've given, I'm fairly certain the above partition table changes are correct. That last partition though that I have marked as L, it may be that testdisk will only let you mark it with P; that's fine if testdisk won't let you set it as L.

Once the partitions are marked as shown above, then press "enter" to continue, and you should be presented with some sort of option to write the partition table changes. After written the changes and quit testdisk, then do:

sudo apt-get install syslinux
sudo dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda

Be careful that you get that "dd" command above exactly right, otherwise it could be dangerous. That will restore your Windows MBR so that you should be able to boot directly into Windows. Go ahead and reboot, see if you can boot into Windows OK, and if not, please post the new output of:

sudo fdisk -l

And we can work from there.

[lorenzodeangeli]

I marked the partitions as you said, it worked. As I quit testdisk, it tells me to reboot for the change to take effect. should i do it or type the code as you said?

if i have to reboot, do i do it by closing the live session and restarting the computer?

[caljohnsmith]

I marked the partitions as you said, it worked. As I quit testdisk, it tells me to reboot for the change to take effect. should i do it or type the code as you said?

if i have to reboot, do i do it by closing the live session and restarting the computer?

You should go ahead and run those commands I gave, otherwise you won't have any hope of booting into Windows. And yes, to reboot, just choose restart from the live session under System > Shutdown, or the icon in the upper right-corner of your screen.

[lorenzodeangeli]

alright, now i can boot into windows, thanx a lot for the help, it really guided me through..this Ubuntu forum community is really helpful

now what do you suggest, I still want to install Ubuntu but i'm afraid the same thing (or even worse) is going to happen..

[caljohnsmith]

I would suggest looking at Herman's website for a good tutorial on setting up a dual boot with Ubuntu. I would highly recommend backing up your HDD first as a precaution since you had problems before. I think with Herman's tutorial you should be fine though. Good luck.