GRUB stuck in HD, Error 17

[nichos]

Old Compaq Presario 1685 Laptop, HD 4.8 GB

Had win98, some time ago Loaded Ubuntu 8.10, probably without reformating, failed to install & now nothing installs in it.

Tried MSDos 6, FreeDos, Puppy, FluxBuntu etc, all report installed fine but on each case booting on the HD gives:-

"...GRUB Loading stage1.5
Grub Loading, please waite...
Error 17..."

After each one FDisk shows
c: Partition 1 PRI Dos 20445mb FAT16 44%
....Partition 2 EXT Dos 2599 56%
Total disk space 4644mb

How can I clear this & probably install something in it. .......nick

[rokytnji]

Boot up Live Cd of Installed OS (Puppy, Ubuntu, whateverlinux) and mount your installed hardrive and access your /boot/grub/menu.lst file and copy and paste said file in your next post so members can take a look at it.

[nichos]

sorry canot do that as none boots up & to quote me "....all report installed fine but on each case booting on the HD gives:-
"...GRUB Loading stage1.5
Grub Loading, please waite...
Error 17..."

Chasing my own tail

[Jonathan183]

Check BIOS parameters for virus protection ... you could use dd to wipe the MBR, MBR + partition table or whole drive ...

[nichos]

thanx, VIRUS???? never connected on the net.

What is "dd" please?, if I have it I'll do it.

And do not forget there is no dos or any OS in it. Nothing sticks, except cdr & flopy.

prbably the HD is gone as when I format it stays stuck on "....trying to recover allocation unit 6,265...."
nick

[Jonathan183]

Virus protection was implemented in BIOS quite a while ago to prevent overwriting of MBR boot code (and I think also partition table). You will need to go into BIOS setup and make sure it is not set on ... if it is it will prevent writing - which would explain the problem you are having.

dd command in Linux ... examples of use - here

[nichos]

it's Phinix Bios has no reference to Bios Virus Protection

As I cannot boot in to Linux or anything else I cannot use "dd".

Fdisk will not delete C: as it is Primary.

I even used my trusted ancient Partition Magic 5 & cannot delete everything & start afresh.

Unless the HD is caput, is ther any other way to reformat it?

[Jonathan183]

Can you boot into any version of Linux?

Tried MSDos 6, FreeDos, Puppy, FluxBuntu etc, all report installed fine but on each case booting on the HD gives

You only need to get to command prompt running from any source to use the dd command ...

[rokytnji]

sorry canot do that

nichlos, I am a bit confused by your reply. A live CD does not even require a Hardive to boot or run. The operating system runs of the cd in the cd drive. I have never got any kind of grub error 17 booting of a live cd. You can partition, delete partitions, install grub boot loader, edit grub all from a live cd. So I do not understand your reply.

[nichos]

I thought it had to be Linux, I can get a dos prompt with the Dos CD, will that have the "dd"command though, I'll try.................woooops, no such command there, must be a linux one. ..........nick