grub reinstallation error 12

[pigcat]

hi I am trying to reinstall grub after windows xp wiped it out following the instructions from:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351

I get :

"Error 12: Invalid device requested"

after the command:

"setup (hd0)"

I try deleting windows xp on my primary partition to see if it would boot into my ubuntu(partition 2) but it just hangs there so im running ubuntu from the livecd.

output for: sudo fdisk -l

omitting empty partition (5)

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbd92cbe8

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 16356 131379538+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 16357 38913 181189102+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 37994 38913 7389868+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 16357 37110 166706442 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 37111 37993 7092666 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80060424192 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9733 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0006da0a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 9733 78180291 7 HPFS/NTFS




and I get "cat: /boot/grub/menu.lst: No such file or directory"

for "cat /boot/grub/menu.lst"

any help would be greatly appreciated!

[dstew]

It may be that the MBR of (hd0) is not accessible for some reason. It is possible that the BIOS is protecting it. You might check for security settings in BIOS. Some BIOses will have settings that prevent the MBR from being written to try to avoid certain kinds of viruses. Since you are not trying to access a partition with the setup command, I don't think the usual tricks like setting partition boot flags with GParted will help.

When you did "find /boot/grub/menu.lst" did it return (hd0,4)? If so, you might need to do "root (hd0,4)" before you try "cat /boot/grub/menu.lst", or try
cat (hd0,4)/boot/grub/menu.lst

I assume you are running grub from a Live CD boot.