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



I mounted sda1 and this is what the window shows
System Recovery 1024 bytes
Autorun.inf 45bytes
Folder.htt 8121 bytes
Info.exe 40.00 kbytes
warning.bmp 94.51 kbytes

Kinda sounds like this is the recovery partition which i think was around 500mb
When I mount sda2 nothing shows and it says in the bottom could not determine the file system and none was specified and that sda2 is unmounted according to mtab
Is sda2 the accual C drive and sda1 the recovery partition He put on ?
Quote (rkenwood @ Mar. 18 2007,18:31)
ok and by the way a huge thank you for your help (breathing again now).

No problem. Glad you're breathing.
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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.

In emelfm (as root), you can right click on mount points in /mnt and mount (and umount) them with your mouse. Each partition has its own mount point (sda1 and sda2 would be the first two partitions on SCSI or USB device sda).
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This is a gateway fx400xl with 4gb of ram and 2 250 gb hard drives the newer type by the way

I'm jealous.
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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

Let's see if the problem can be narrowed down to MBR first. That's pretty easy if you have a DOS recovery floppy (fdisk /mbr), but that may not be the problem. I don't know if you opened your case and adjusted any cables before this (or after as I suggested), but at this point it could still be a hardware issue as much as it could be a software issue. Make sure the connectors on the hard drive are seated flush and that the ribbon cables aren't crimped or anything like that. The fact that you're now able to mount a partition using Linux, though, does reduce the likelihood of something like that being the issue.

As far as what recovery partition your tech set up, I have no idea. I can't see your computer from here. You can paste in the output from fdisk -l (lowercase L) -- this just lists your available partitions -- here so we have an idea of what partitions you have, etc., and try to figure it out from that. You recovery partition won't be of much use, though, without a recovery CD -- and I'm wondering why the CD you used before went straight to a format option without asking if you wanted to recover. Hmmmm.

original here.