Repartiioning hd & NTLDR is missing

Hi everyone,
I have desperate need of help. I've read others threads in this forum about "NTLDR is missing" message but it seemes my situation is harder... Here's the probelm

I have a dual boot laptop (Acer Travelmate 8006LMi if this can help); first partition is (maybe I have to say 'was' now) winXP sp2 on ntfs, second partition is linux swap space, third partition is linux on ext3. Because I need to share some data between linux/win I wanted to create another parition with fat32 (I need write access from both OS). Thus I used ntfsresize linux program to shrink the ntfs partition and everything went good. Rebooting in windows was ok after that operation.

Next I did the big mistake (I know it, but I did it at the end of an infernal day when of course I was too tired... ): I repartitioned the disk while I was using it... sob! Repartiotioning seemd to go well (I created another partition of type W95 FAT (LBA) with linux 'fdisk'); but at the next boot I got error messages from boot loader (grub if this can help).

So I restored previously saved mbr and partitions table and this saved me a lot of work because it allowed me to boot linux again. But not windows... ; choosing windows option in bootloader I got "NTLDR is missing" message.

So I used Recovery Console; I have tried 'fixboot' and 'fixmbr' utilities but without results (they say all is done but nothing change); 'bootscan' complains there are errors and that I have to run 'chkdsk'; 'chkdsk' tells me there are unrecoverable errors and doesn't run. 'diskpart' tells me the first partition is FAT !!
Making 'dir' in C:\ I obtain nothing; anyway it tell me that there are only 3 GB left unused and this is correct, this was the space left on the first partition; so I think all my data are yet there but I can't access them ; of course I backed up vital data, but I would like to recover others not vital but very important (and for which I have no space to back them up). Even mounting the first partition in linux fails.

So I'm asking this: is there a way to get windows boot again without formatting ? And if not, is there a way to access data and move them temporarily on linux partition to do a data safe format ?

Last thing last: I have no floppy driver on my laptop, but I have sane WinXP installation on another pc from which I could retrieve system files if needed; but I don't know what to do.

Thanks

 

Yes I updated grub and its configuration file

I could try a live distro but I think the problem is mounting the win partition; in fact I tried this with my distro's cd (which is Gentoo) but I was not able to mount the partition.

I think I need some kind of 'raw' reading method of the partition, bypassing infos on the hd but I don't know how to do that

 

Consider using a disk imaging software to bit copy the partition and place the resultant image on a healthy drive or burn it to CD's. Then see if the imaging software's file explorer function will allow retrieval of files. It has worked for others in the past. Ghost and True Image are both good at this since you can run them from a boot floppy.

You may also consider using Knoppix (free) since it's self contained on a single CD.

 

Unfortunately I havo no folppy drive, but I guess I could use Ghost or True Image from a bootable cd/dvd. The real problem is that on my linux partition I don't have enough room for a bit copy of the windows partition; and I can not attach a second hd beacuse thi is a notebook. This is why I'm looking for a way to restore the partition (I think the problem is in the boot sector and in the structure of the partition, because a software called TestDisk told me that 'NTFS partition has boot sector invalid' and that 'NTFS partition doesn't end on a cylinder') or to 'raw' read the bad partition to retrieve only a part of the data stored on it

 

I take it you don't have a burner in the notebook either?

 

Yes I have a cd/dvd burner (which now I must use under linux); in fact the problem is that I have no space enough for an image of the whole partition

 

Eureka !!!

I solved the problem out; All thanks to a program called TestDisk that was able to reconstruct the boot sector of the win partition, allowing me to mount it under linux and to copy necessary data. Moreover, it allowd Recovery Console to execute a chkdsk. Unlucky this wasn't enough to reboot Windows: now when I try to boot it after a few seconds I get a system restart. But now I can format safely the partition

 

Fantastic!! Thanks for the update.

 

crossed in the mail.