Ubuntu :: Installing Grub / Grub2 - "Error 15: File Not Found"

I have had it with the frustration of trying to figure out how to successfully install grub on my own, so I am hitting the forums. What can you tell me about installing grub/grub2 (whichever is best -- I want something that works) to my single hard drive computer. Operating systems: Windows XP, xUbuntu 9.10 Hard drive: Samsung SATA 2, 1 TB Desired result: Menu that loads upon boot so that I can select which OS I would like to load without inserting media device or disk.

I thought this individual had the most straight forward and thorough tutorial (of any I have seen) on the subject but precluded at least one thing for me that I cannot afford to ignore: I don't seem to have a "stage1" that can be loaded by the grub shell. Trying to find it in /boot/grub/stage1 in the grub shell, I get... "Error 15: File not found" What I do have in that directory is 'grubenv'. When I boot up, it loads grub, but it comes up with an error message saying, "File not found". Then, all I get is the 'grub rescue' prompt: "grub rescue>".

Obviously, after spending hours on this thing, this is not the whole story. But there have been so many attempts to try fix it with one thing or another, that I cannot easily relate them all, if I could even remember each one.