Old IBM Thinkpad 390E
- CPU : PII 333MHz
- HD : IBM Dara 12GB
- RAM : 256MB
-- Current Partitions : hda1 which is labelled as / (root partition in Linux), swap partition and then hda5 (or E drive) with FAT32 which holds My Documents folder.
Before you tell me this is the wrong forum to post, hear me out. The reason I have Linux installed is because it basically was my only option.
Here's the story. I am on an old laptop, I have ran Dual boots on this thing before (I know it's not the smartest thing to do, but I want both OS's and I am not that patient to wait for a new pc). I redid my partitions in Win2k Pro (which I had installed already), firstly I made a partition to hold the My Documents folder in FAT32, since this would make the My Docs folder accessible in Linux as well. That was no issue, I cleared space, shifted files around etc. I ended up with a pretty dual boot, win 2k pro and Ubuntu Hoary Hedgehog (don't ask why I went for Ubuntu - I don't have a cd burner).
Because I couldn't get my sound to work in Linux, I decided to remove it. This is where I went very very wrong. I just deleted the partitions

At some point I was forced to reboot my system, I prayed for it to go well, however it didn't. I got an error 22 from the grub. (Sadly I also had the " great " idea of installing grub in the MBR). Thus my windows and linux were lost. I only had my FAT32 data partition left. So I tried to reinstall Windows. I let it go on, to install on the previous win partition (thus saving the e drive with my docs). It all goes perfect, the files get copied to the HD. But then there comes a point where you need to reboot, into some miniOS where the windows install gets concluded. And that's what doesn't happen of course. I still get the grub error 22.
I installed Ubuntu again because it overwrites the MBR if I let it, but of course now my system is a single linux boot. And I do need windows (more specific Photoshop, Dreamweaver etc. I study webdesign.)
I saw a thread quite similar to this issue, but the OS was Mandrake and WinXP if I am not mistaken. (link)
I read in the rules that I should create my own thread, thus here it is.
In all honesty, I don't know how I could possibly fix it. My only comfort is the prospect of a new computer in july or august (but by then I will have failed my year because I can't hand in my final work - which also got lost since it was on win partition on the webserver)
Anyone ANY idea on how to fix it? Mind you, I do not have a cd-burner on this machine.