Recovering from _misinstall_ of GRUB 1.98

[Richard Owlett]

N.B. - The misinstallation was result of multiple human 
error, not GRUB itself ;/

What I attempted/desired was create a "full" install of 
Ubuntu 10.10 on a USB stick so I could run either my desktop 
machine or my laptop from identical configuration - 
especially including all emails.

What I got was GRUB installed on my hard drive and Ubuntu 
installed on the USB stick.
Technically it works, menu comes up and OS may be chosen.
Operationally *NOT* acceptable:
  1. defaults to "wrong" OS.
  2. can not boot at all if USB stick not plugged in. 
Resulting error message
        error: no such device: ....
        grub rescue>_
  3. Can not boot from USB stick when installed on other 
machine

I can see two general ways to recover
   - wipe GRUB from hard disk and repair MBR if required
   - rewrite the GRUB menu

The first has two sub categories:
  1. As I have a MS Windows "Rescue and Recovery Disc" that 
route is available as a
     last resort option - possibility of data loss
  2. I have read of several programs for removing GRUB &/or 
restoring MBR.
     Unfortunately all I've found run under Linux. The 
machine in question can
     _only_ connect to internet via a dialup connection. 
Though a dialer is available
     in Ubuntu repository which is obviously not available 
to me as only physically
     possible way to connect is via a dialer - *CATCH 22* ;<

  Any one know of a Windows(tm) program to do that? It 
would be my preffered solution.

As to the second, the only instuctions I've found relate to 
adding or reordering options. I need to completely remove 
inappropriate options.

CLI use is an option as I go back to CP/M-80 days though 
I've now acquired decades of Windows bad habits.


Also, any pointers to articles comparing use of MBR, LILO, 
GRUB, and GRUB2?
One motivation for getting into Linux is learning what goes 
on at lowest level - haven't done that for about four decades.

TIA