DSL-N :: after using DSL-N can't find Windows

Please if someone can help it would be much appriciated. I downloaded
DSL-N after trying DSL and an other knoppix disk DSL-N is the olny one that lets me get on the net however when I tryed to reboot into Windows it said it can't find the operating system. If I must reinstall and reformat thats ok I guess but is there a way to access the hard drives with DSL-N and burn off my apps ,downloads,music ect.? I don't know what i did to get into this mess but being new to Linux I found the way. Please help before I do a reformat

Quote (rkenwood @ Mar. 18 2007,14:18)

Did you mount your hard drive when using DSL? By default, it doesn't do anything to your drive. You can try starting Windows in safemode (hold f8 while you boot) or use your Windows recovery CD or floppy (you have one, right?). Also check your hard drive connectors and make sure they're properly seated. You shouldn't need to reformat anything (!!!!!!) to get it working again unless you mounted your hard drive and deleted files required to boot Windows or tampered with your MBR. If your MBR has been affected, you can do a search for fixing Windows MBR (using DOS floppy: fdisk /mbr). Just please slow down and figure out what the problem really is before "formatting" anything.

I don't think I mounted sda1 which i think is the hard drive , I tried the F8 but it
still says no operating system found and when I use the recovery disk it wants to reformat the drive (says all user files and data will be lost) and I need the XP operating disk to reload the drivers which they were kind enuf not to furnish. This was pointed out to me by the Gateway folks . So i need to contact the guys I bought the computer from to get the operating system.Can I still access the hard drive and burn off my downloads ect so I can rebuild and how do I do that?

Quote (rkenwood @ Mar. 18 2007,17:25)

Yes. Use emelfm, mount the drive (/mnt/sda1 if you're right -- USB or SCSI drive? if it's an old school hard drive, it's probably hda instead of sda), and you should be able to access your files. I think DSL-N has GCombust for burning your data.

Not sure what you mean by "rebuild." I still think, though, you should try using a DOS floppy and fixing your MBR before getting all trigger happy with formatting (no!! not unless it's toast, and I'm not convinced it is from what you've written) and reinstalling (especially if you lack the XP CD -- can't reinstall what you don't have anyway).

Unless you were totally reckless when you mounted your drive, your Windows stuff should be just fine and you only need to figure out why it's not loading. Could be a variety of things. The first step is always patience (followed by deep breaths). You can back up your data just in case, but I would try fixing only what's actually broken and not trying to fix what isn't broken.

ok and by the way a huge thank you for your help (breathing again now).
I opened emelfm and typed in mnt/sda1 and it shows sda1/ 1024 bytes but i don't know which button to push to show the files on that drive or how to access them.
This is a gateway fx400xl with 4gb of ram and 2 250 gb hard drives the newer type by the way
Next I don't have a DOS floopy and I'm not sure how to fix the MBR but I'm hopping that the place I bought the computer from will give me the OS disk and
I will make a recovery disk right way. Also I had some heat problems with this computer before and when I got it back the Tech said he put a recovery partition on the C drive (SDA1 right?) if I can access the drive might I be able to do something with that? thanks again!!
R

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