Need help with dual-boot!

[lwpack]

Greetings everyone. I just bought a computer from dell with Vista installed. I wanted a Vista/Ubuntu dual boot so I resized the Vista partition with GParted and installed Ubuntu in the free space. However, something must have gone wrong because now Vista doesn't boot up. When I select Vista from the GRUB menu it says, "BOOTMGR is missing." Dell never sent me the Vista installation cd's so I can't reinstall Vista. What can I do?

[devils casper]

boot up Ubuntu, open terminal and execute this

sudo fdisk -l
sudo less /boot/grub/menu.lst

post output here.

[lwpack]

boot up Ubuntu, open terminal and execute this

sudo fdisk -l
sudo less /boot/grub/menu.lst

post output here.

Hi Casper. I had a mistake on GRUB and that's why it was saying "BOOTMGR is missing." I fixed that mistake but windows still isn't booting. When I choose to boot into Vista a screen pops up giving me an option of running in normal mode or recovery mode so it can repair itself, but neither one works. Just a blank screen. That computer isn't hooked up to the internet yet, so right now I'm writing from a different computer. Without copy and paste I'll just give you the results of those commands that I'm assuming are important:

sudo fdisk -l

Device Boot System
/dev/sda1 Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 * HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 Extended
/dev/sda5 Linux
/dev/sda6 * Linux swap/Solaris

sudo less gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hdo,2)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

I appreciate the help.

[devils casper]

edit 'root' line in menu.lst file and replace 'root' with 'rootnoverify'.

title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

where is Vista installed? in C: drive or D: drive?

[lwpack]

edit 'root' line in menu.lst file and replace 'root' with 'rootnoverify'.

title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

where is Vista installed? in C: drive or D: drive?

I changed it to "rootnoverify" but I get the exact same thing happening. It gives me the option of booting into "startup repair mode" but then nothing.

I'm not sure where it is installed...it came preinstalled by dell

[devils casper]

It gives me the option of booting into "startup repair mode" but then nothing.

thats Dell's recovery console. replace (hd0,2) with (hd0,1).

[lwpack]

thats Dell's recovery console. replace (hd0,2) with (hd0,1).

tried that. If you do that Grub says, "BOOTMGR is missing"

[devils casper]

something wrong with Windows only. remove GRUB and check if windows booting up properly. boot up from Windows installation CD, select 'repair' and execute 'fixmbr'.

[lwpack]

something wrong with Windows only. remove GRUB and check if windows booting up properly. boot up from Windows installation CD, select 'repair' and execute 'fixmbr'.

Well, the problem is Dell never sent the vista installation cd's. So I guess there's nothing I can do until I get Dell to send them to me. Thanks Casper.

[devils casper]

hmmm... if you have Floppy Drive, try Windows 98 Bootable floppy. download it from here, boot up from it and execute 'fdisk /mbr'.