let me start by saying I'm a total newbie, to get that out of the way. without any further ado, let me begin. I tend to go on, so I'll try and have a summary at the end if you wanna skip the story part. //BEGIN STORY SEGMENT I was (am?) interested in linux. my friend recommended SuSE, and the website advertised that their installation would put in the partitions that linux needed without erasing data. as shady as this proposition sounded, I went ahead. now, my windows will not boot. I had two partitions _before_ installing it: one with the windows functionality and all my installed programs, the other full of music, images, movie files, etc. I split up the latter partition to install linux. not being of a very patient bent, I shuddered in the face of the daunting task of backing up so many gigs of data. since I had much of it on cd anyway (I had reformatted a couple months earlier), I entrusted the fate of my files to the makers of SuSE. a mistake? time will tell. I'm still getting used to working in linux, and after overcoming all kinds of problems (including my keyboard somehow being recognized as a german variant and spewing all manner of nonsense when I tried to type) I kinda know my way around it. my next priority before perfecting things, though, is getting my files and my windows back. by the way, I know charging into this was a foolish move. spare me your admonitions. I was eager to get started. //END STORY SEGMENT to recap: I had two partitions, one with windows, one with files. I installed suse linux, splitting up the file partition, and now my windows won't boot. mounting the windows partition is easy, and I can see that my old C: (windows + installed programs) is intact. mounting my old D: (music, imagery, etc.) is problematic. but, from what I've read, ntfs is tough, and I'm holding out hope my data is recoverable. my suspicion is this partition is screwed up. I know nothing of partitions, but I gather that the partition table is invalid and I must fix it. when I try to boot windows, it goes nowhere fast and tells me this: [code] root (hd0,0) Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7 chainloader +1 [/code] when I used ntfsresize to figure it out, it told me /dev/hda5 doesn't have a valid ntfs. according to [url]http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html#troubleshoot,[/url] this also suggests partition trouble. I did fdisk -l /dev/hda5, like that FAQ told me to, and got this output: [code] Disk /dev/hda5: 24.1 GB, 24184774656 bytes 16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 46861 cylinders Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes Disk /dev/hda5 doesn't contain a valid partition table [/code] this language of partition tables is new and frightening to me. I implore you, oh venerable linux community, lend aid to your newest convert! help me recover my files, if possible, and get my windows up and running without the pain of tracking down my xp cd and reformatting. I'll burden you with one more output. I used cfdisk to analyze the partition table, and this is what I got. [code] Partition Table for /dev/hda ---Starting--- ----Ending---- Start Number of # Flags Head Sect Cyl ID Head Sect Cyl Sector Sectors -- - ---- 1 0x80 1 1 0 0x07 15 63 1023 63 20482812 2 0x00 15 63 1023 0x0F 15 63 1023 20482875 57657285 3 0x00 0 0 0 0x00 0 0 0 0 0 4 0x00 0 0 0 0x00 0 0 0 0 0 5 0x00 15 63 1023 0x07 15 63 1023 693 47235888 6 0x00 15 63 1023 0x82 15 63 1023 1 1552257 7 0x00 15 63 1023 0x83 15 63 1023 1 8868321 [/code] although this whole console thing is still foreign to me, I'm ready and willing to venture into it 20 more times if there's more information I should collect. I realize that I could be way off here, so any advice is appreciated. thanks to anyone who even considers helping me.

Check out This link</> It gives you instruction to get windows back.

Anyway, the following website. It seems I made a typing error in the previous message. http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/05/fhassel_windows_not_booting91.html

since windows contains your most valuable info, try to fix Windows and worry about linux later. Modifying the partition table is incredibly dangerous, particularly if you are unsure of the previous contents - and I suspect thats not the problem. FYI, /dev/hda5 should not contain the partition table, /dev/hda contains it - this indicates how much you need to learn on this topic. you should have a windows recovery/rescue diskette. Boot that and do what it tells you and run the Win disk checking software. After this, run command: "fdisk /mbr" (this command may have changed in later Win's). Now you should be able to boot Win, not linux Prior to the above, since you can apparently boot linux, create a boot/recovery diskette if you have not previously created one. You can use this to boot linux and use lilo or grub to create a dual boot system.

Dionra: Unfortunately I don't have the windows installation or recovery cd's, but thanks for your help anyway. Guido: Thank you very much. That link was very helpful, and I can now boot my Windows up again. I'm almost embarrassed I didn't find it myself, but SuSE's support search tool is pretty lousy in my opinion. Unfortunately, I still can't access the partition with my old files on it. Windows claims it's not formatted and Linux is still saying the same thing. Before I abandon my files for good, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. Also, would formatting it from Windows (provided that it even works) wipe out my Linux, or is Linux hidden well enough that Windows can't touch it? The last thing I need is any more problems.

- Formatting a partition should not harm data which is stored on other partitions. In theory at least. - A Reinstall of windows would not harm the linux partitions if you don't let windows install on a linux partition. But, windows will overwrite the bootloader linux installed, so you won't be able to boot into linux; unless you have a bootdisk for linux. (And after that you can reinstall the linux bootloader). I did a quick google search about data recovery and windows and found the following: http://www.ntfs.com/products.htm http://www.active-undelete.com/ http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm There are a lot more sites claiming to know how to deal with your problem. I didn't check if the demo versions do have sufficient functionality for recovery. If not, the question is how valuable your data is for you. I do not have sufficient experience with windows filesystems to help you out. Well, one thing you know already: messing around with partition tables is very dangerous... And always keep backups of important data outside your computer (it might get stolen or experience a hardware failure). One thing could be worth a try: Change the harddisk settings in the systems BIOS; To manual, LBA or other options offered. Good luck!

Well, it could be worth a try, Follow the instructions from the previous link only replace fixpart=1 with fixpart=5 If the lost partition is the 5th partition on the first IDE harddisk (/dev/hda5) Could be dangerous, since I've no idea what that command would do.