[newb123]

So I was fascinated by the concept of a separate operating system on a flash drive (and also wanted to try out some form of linux), so I decided to follow the instructions here:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2008/03...drive-install/

Well... Almost. My computer is a vaio sz, and I couldn't just disconnect the hard drive. However, I figured I could just tell the suse installer to leave the hard drive alone. Apparently, that doesn't quite work. I now am running SUSE from a flash drive (neat OS, but it's my first time using linux so I'm flailing madly here).

The problem, of course, is that some sort of boot loader info got put onto the hard drive. When I try to load the computer without the flash drive (expecting windows vista), I get the following:

GRUB Loading stage1.5

GRUB Loading, please wait...
Error21

Also, with the flash drive, I am given the option to boot windows, but get the following error if I try:

Booting "Windows"

rootnoverify (/dev/sdv2, 1)
Error 23: Error while parsing number

So... I don't even know where to start. I don't have a windows boot CD handy, but I have access to all the windows files -- including some that appear to have suspiciously arrived (or have been edited) yesterday (when this whole experiment took place). I'm quite willing to manually edit or delete some files, even if it means I have to start the experiment over -- I just need access to my windows stuff. Still, I have no idea if this is the correct approach -- any help would be HUGELY appreciated.

[saikee]

Download Freedos, burn it into a CD, boot it up and type

fdisk /mbr

You can get your Windows back.

For explanation see the last link of my signature Task B1 & B2.

You can repair the Linux boot loader Grub by any Linux Live CD if you still want to try the Linux in the pen drive. You need to post its /boot/grub/menu.lst here. If you don't know how let's us know.