I rarely use either the MAP or the DISPART command and if I have a major problem,
similar to yours, I always use an M$-DOS boot disk.

The difference being that the DOS command FDISK - does return volume labels (where
they exist) on partitions.

The thing is, without knowing which partition is which - you might be deleting the
netbook's recovery partition - should it have one.

My best guess would be :

-: Partition1 EISA Utilities 6150 MB = RECOVERY PARTITION
C: Partition2 NTFS 68653 MB = WINDOWS PARTITION
E: Partition3 NTFS 39622 MB = UBUNTU PARTITION
D: Partition1 KINGSTON [FAT] = YOUR USB DRIVE

......so, you could try deleting E: Partition3 NTFS 39622 MB ....(unless you know
different - that this is NOT the UBUNTU partition!)

My evidence for this is that as you are actually logged in to C:\Windows while you
are running Recovery Console, the partition before it must have been there before or
at the installation of the C: partition - it has no drive-letter associated with it,
so it's probably a hidden partition - usually this means the recovery partition.
That just leaves Partition3 (E

So, as I said, unless you know differently, delete Partition3 (E using DISKPART
then reboot back into the Recovery Console and check it has been deleted using
DISKPART again.

Then try :

FIXMBR
FIXBOOT C:

....once more......

At the end of the day, since I am 99% sure you have a (intact) recovery partition, as
you are booting you should be seeing a message at the bottom of the screen, something
like "Press F10 for recovery options " .

However, should this be the case, and you use the NetBook's in-built recovery
option - it will copy the factory-state Windows installation back to the C: drive -
over-writing your old XP and all the data (music & videos) you may have stored there.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"Carl" wrote in message
...
On Apr 27, 5:25 pm, John John - MVP wrote:
Carl wrote:
Hi Tim -

Back home. Started the netbook with the Windows Recovery flash drive.

At the prompt typed FIXMBR C; and hit Enter
No text appeared, it simply brought me back to the prompt

You didn't do it right, FIXMBR uses the device name rather than the
drive letter, for example:

fixmbr \device\harddisk0

Note the double "dd" in the device name (hard+disk)

To get a list of devices use the MAP command.

If the syntax is correct you will get a warning message and you will be
prompted to confirm the action. If you answer Y (yes) to confirm the
action you will receive a message stating that a new master boot record
was successfully written. If the syntax is incorrect you will be
returned to the prompt without any message of any kind.

You can also run the FIXMBR command without specifying any device and
the MBR will be written to the boot device, here again you will receive
a warning message and be asked to confirm the action.

Fixmbr will surely dislodge the GRUB loader from the MBR, you just have
to use the proper syntax.

John

Hi John -

Thank you for weighing in.

The MAP command returned this:

? NTFS 6150MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition1
C: NTFS 68653MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition2
E: NTFS 39621MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition3
D: FAT16 963MB \Device\Harddisk1\Partition1

What's the next step, gentlemen?

Many thanks, once again, for your time and patience.

Carl