I have a Toshiba NetBook NB 255 with Windows 7 Starter on it. I had installed Lucid Puppy as it seemed like a good option to make this computer usable, it is unbearably slow with W7 Starter! Anyway, the Puppy installation got corrupted, and I had to reinstall it. But it got corrupted again and I was going to install something else, so I deleted the partition with Puppy on it. I had previously installed EasyBCD, and after deleting the Linux partition, I ran EasyBCD to see if the Windows 7 bootloader was still there. It showed it there, so I restarted the computer to install something else like Slax, or something, but I ran into a snag! I cannot boot into Windows anymore! When I try to boot from a USB flash drive, it won't boot either! So I'm stuck, I can't boot into Windows, and I can't get anything else to boot either! I have tried multiple Linux flavors, a super GRUB disk, and even Windows 7 installers trying to get the thing to boot, and I even tried a different flash drive, but nothing will work. No matter what OS I'm trying to boot, I just get a black screen with a blinking cursor.
Did I mention that this Netbook doesn't have a CD drive? So that option is out of the question.
Please Help!
Computer can't boot after uninstalling Puppy
Yes, I can. I can tell it to boot from my USB drive, but after that, it just shows a black screen with a blinking cursor. The little light on the flash drive blinks for a few seconds after selecting it to boot, but after that it stays off.
When I try to boot it just normally into Windows, I get:
When I try to boot it just normally into Windows, I get:
I also got another error which I can't replicate now. It was something about Intel Corporation, and it said a cable is unplugged or something. I will try to see if I can get it again so I can post it for troubleshooting.GRUB Loading stage1.5.
GRUB loading, please wait...
Error 17
When you installed Puppy, you let it install its GRUB bootloader on the MBR of your hard drive.
When you deleted the Puppy partition, you also deleted some of the GRUB code. So when GRUB starts to boot from the MBR, it fails.
The solution is to re-install the original Win7 bootloader on the MBR. This is possible using Puppy, but you will need to boot off another device, like a flash drive. Your problem with bootable flash drives is a separate issue.
When you deleted the Puppy partition, you also deleted some of the GRUB code. So when GRUB starts to boot from the MBR, it fails.
The solution is to re-install the original Win7 bootloader on the MBR. This is possible using Puppy, but you will need to boot off another device, like a flash drive. Your problem with bootable flash drives is a separate issue.
@mikeb
If I can't boot anything, how can I get to ms-sys?
@rcrsn51
Yes, I figured as much, so I guess my trouble is to get it to boot from a flash drive. Anybody have any suggestions? I have tried multiple OSs, different flash drives, and different programs to write them to the USB, but nothing has helped.
If I can't boot anything, how can I get to ms-sys?
@rcrsn51
Yes, I figured as much, so I guess my trouble is to get it to boot from a flash drive. Anybody have any suggestions? I have tried multiple OSs, different flash drives, and different programs to write them to the USB, but nothing has helped.
Hey, guys thanks for all your tips!
I finally got it to boot! I hadn't thought to try booting a different machine with the USB drive, and when I tried, I got the same symptoms, i.e. black screen with blinking cursor. So I burned a DVD with UBUNTU 13.04 and booted up another machine and made a bootable USB with Unetbootin, and that did the trick! After successfully booting into Ubuntu, it wasn't hard to fix the MBR and get 'er rolling again.
I finally got it to boot! I hadn't thought to try booting a different machine with the USB drive, and when I tried, I got the same symptoms, i.e. black screen with blinking cursor. So I burned a DVD with UBUNTU 13.04 and booted up another machine and made a bootable USB with Unetbootin, and that did the trick! After successfully booting into Ubuntu, it wasn't hard to fix the MBR and get 'er rolling again.
...my bad thought you still could run something on there.