Major help needed - Grub2 bootloader all messed up (my fault)
Hello everyone!
So I royally screwed up my computer. Heres a summary of what's going on.
I have been a long time Windows XP sp3 fan. I was totally interested in starting to use a Linux distro but was afraid that if something was to go wrong I would not know how or would struggle fixing it. On Ubuntu's website there is the walkthrough to dual boot with Windows using Grub. Seemed perfect.
Recently I purchased a motherboard, 4x4gb RAM, intel i3 cpu and thermaltake case to upgrade in addition to my existing hardware. Custom build completed I powered on for the first time with great success! Grub loaded and I first went to Windows XP to install additional drivers and such. I had already known that I would want to use x64 version of Ubuntu to support my 16gb of RAM. After some Ubuntu forum searching and some Google searches I decided to uninstall Ubuntu and Grub and reinstall with the x64.
Here's exactly what I did to mess everything up. I had installed Ubuntu and Grub (using wubi) onto a secondary 40gb HDD. I used a disk manager app to partition that hard drive and wipe it clean. I then inserted my Windows XP OS recovery disc to then go into repair and fix up the MBR to get my back to booting Windows straight up. My first problem was that the recovery disc would not boot. Even when I later went into BIOS and changed the boot order. With this and every disc I then attempted I was met with a black screen that had a blinking cursor. It wouldn't allow me to type anything. When attempting to boot from my primary hard drive with Windows I was met by the Grub rescue> screen of death. Since I partioned my hard drive that contained Grub, it is not able to find anything.
I burned Super Grub 2 iso onto a disc and tried to run it. Black screen with cursor. I tried to run an Ubuntu OS disc. Black screen with cursor. Besides BIOS the only screen I can get to is the Grub rescue> screen that has no files to draw from.
I'm pretty freaked out by all this. All my important files are backed up so I am prepared to do anything. My preference would by to not wipe the hard drive.
Any help is so very appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to here me out.