<!-- [if gte mso 10]> <mce:style> GRUB Problem & Unbootable System

I installed LINUX (Ubuntu 9.10) on my Dell Optiplex R&D PC just for curiosity & feel how good are the looks and in this process also fiddled with the partitions on the hard disk too. It was somewhat usable but soon I got fed up with driver & other issues so decided to get rid of it.

I thought restoring Windows 7 image from my WHS would be just a cakewalk, and relatively the process was very easy using Home Computer restore CD & the system showed everything restored and asked for reboot. As I rebooted the system to my surprise it gave me this

GRUB Loading.

error: unknown filesystem

grub rescue>

then I rebooted again & nothing else happened but the same error. I tried to figure it out by using all the commands people have suggested everywhere on internet and wasted about 4 hrs in search of a solution. The system remained unbootable with some data in windows partition but I was aware that I haven’t touched that partition but was still anxious to get everything as it was. Until I came across this instruction page on Microsoft's site and I am narrating the tips I followed for the recovery.

Quick and easy fix to remove the dirty GRUB and get Windows again.

1. Put the Windows 7 installation disc in the disc drive, and power cycle your PC after setting it to boot from CD Drive in BIOS.

2. Press a any key when you are prompted & select [language, time, currency, keyboard etc.] & click Next . Select Repair Your Computer option in the dialog window.

3. In the ‘System Recovery Options’ window Click the 1^st Option Startup Repair and let it do what it wants to do, but in my case it didn’t solve the problem so I went to the next step.

4. In the ‘System Recovery Options’ dialog box, go to the last option i.e. Command Prompt .

5. Once in the command prompt (X:\Sources> ), type exactly the following commands in the same sequence

bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup

C:

CD Boot

Attrib bcd –s –h –r

ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old

bootrec /RebuildBcd

then it said

“Scanning all disks for windows installations.

Please wait, since this may take a while…

Successfully scanned windows installations: 1

[1] C:\windows

Add installations to boot list? Yes(y)/No(N)/All(A) : “

I pressed ‘Y’ as there was only one instance of windows installation. Then it said The operation completed successfully.

6. Next entred the following command bootrec /fixmbr It said The operation completed successfully.

7. Next entred the following command bootrec /FixBoot Again It said The operation completed successfully.

8. Set the BIOS again to boot from the HDD and reboot.

GRUB was gone & finally the cool windows 7 was booting again. Hope this will help someone out there with a not so good experience

with LINUX and want to get rid of the dirty GRUB left as sloppy waste by the Free OS.