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I originally posted a question about removing Ubuntu and GRUB from a dual boot system. This is what my partition map looked like at the start:

partition map

My question was marked as a duplicate by moderators, and I was directed to this post: How to remove Ubuntu and put Windows back on?)

I followed the directions there, and performed the following: I booted into the Windows recovery console, and ran FIXMBR on my HD.

After that, to my surprise, the computer would still boot into GRUB. (how is this possible??) However, if I selected to boot Windows, it would say on a purple background "error: no such device: 8234ceb934ceb009. Press any key to continue...". When I press a key I get in B&W: "Invalid partition table".

I was able to boot the computer using my PMAGIC recovery disc, and run Partition Editor. This is what I saw:

enter image description here

Mysteriously, a few reboots later, GRUB vanished. Now I just get the message "Invalid Partition Table". If I boot from my Windows XP installation CD, it no longer sees the installed OS, nor an NTFS partition

It sort of looks like TestDisk sees that there is an NTFS partition there:

enter image description here

Doing a quick search with TestDisk, however, does not seems to find it.

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timelessbeing
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  • Finally, after running a "Deep Search", I was able to restore a working partition table, and even browse the files contained within. However, I'm still unable to boot into Windows XP. I booted from the XP setup CD, but was not shown the option to enter the recovery console. Stumped how to proceed further. – timelessbeing Jan 06 '15 at 05:31
  • Still you have swap and root, seems you have only remove the /boot, Did you used /boot separately ? – Babin Lonston Jan 06 '15 at 05:36
  • Sorry, I don't understand what you're asking. – timelessbeing Jan 06 '15 at 06:34
  • Above Test Disk image show's your /root and swap partitions still exists, Did your /boot located inside /root or it's in separate partition which you have removed before – Babin Lonston Jan 06 '15 at 06:36
  • I don't know what "/boot" is. I'm trying to make Windows work though. Not really concerned with Linux. – timelessbeing Jan 06 '15 at 06:57
  • Things are getting worse. I used the "Repair MFT" option in TestDisk and now I can't browse the files on the NTFS partition in File Manager (Corrupted $UpCase file). I can still list the files in TestDisk though. How can I fix this? – timelessbeing Jan 06 '15 at 07:32
  • Whew! Thankfully I was able to use a Vista recovery disc to repair the file system. However, it still wasn't able to make it bootable. "Root cause found: Boot manager is missing or corrupt. Repair action: File repair. Result: Failed Error code = 0x15" – timelessbeing Jan 06 '15 at 08:31
  • So I think boot manager is a Vista thing and doesn't apply to me, since XP uses NTLDR. At least I had a partition table error before. Now I just a blinking cursor. Why is this so difficult ... – timelessbeing Jan 06 '15 at 23:00
  • Have you tried Fixboot, FixMBR using windows XP repair Option ? – Babin Lonston Jan 07 '15 at 04:35
  • 3rd paragraph of my original post. It was the cause of this whole mess. – timelessbeing Jan 07 '15 at 05:27

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