[Sussex] How to recover from a complete "balls up" ??

[John D.]

Ha! This'll have one or two of you doubled up with laughter!

I was happily following the instructions in the link that John Crowhurst 
sent to "cure" my XP install. Printing this, reading that - when I 
started meddling, all was going well (initially). I obviously didn't pay 
proper attention etc, because I ended up at the stage where I couldn't 
boot it (the XP) at all (having seemingly run out of ideas/options) - so 
I ended up having to make a fresh install of "it" (Aaaarrrrgggghhh! :( ).

So, at about ohfivebuffalo this morning, when I couldn't stay awake any 
longer - I'd got most of the important stuff i.e. the OS (important is 
relative), the service packs and updates etc installed, with only my 
applications left.

When I clambered out of my "pit" this morning, I started getting the 
applications into the system. It all seems to have gone smoothly, even 
if it has taken forever.

The only slight anomaly being that when things went pear shaped 
yesterday, the system had decided that the new mp3 partition was the "C" 
drive and that my main system would be in the "F" drive - shouldn't be a 
problem thinks me! How wrong I was.

I popped the mandrake 9.1 disc in, went to rescue dialogue and told it 
to "re-install the boot loader". Stopped the system and rebooted it to 
check that it works OK, in the hope that I'd be able to declare the 
whole process a success.

WRONG!

I'm currently stuck with only the windows XP, because the mandrake won't 
boot either. OK, thinks me (again), I can just re-install a basic system 
so that it's all up and running - more of the aforementioned WRONG!

It's now reporting that it doesn't like the partition table at all, and 
even with the option of "don't let harddrake modify the partition 
table", it won't install.

So I'm now left with a system that will run the Windows XP, but not, at 
the moment any linux.

I'm trying to think of what my options are. To start with, I'll have to 
work out how I can modify the drive lettering arrangement, so that it's 
back to the default i.e. the main system is in "C", and the fat32 is 
whatever else - there does seem to be a facility for it to do that in 
Partition Magic 8, but given my momentous success at the moment, I'm 
reluctant to try that. Whether that'd clear up any partition table 
problems, or if theres something else I need to do, well that's gonna be 
another thing too struggle with!

Oh for some decent documentation anywhere. Linux, Windows, anything. Or 
perhaps a statutory requirement for document writing developers needing 
a minimum of "A level" (or equivalent) English language, with capital 
punishment for failure to comply :-P

Ha! I've even threatened Clare with total windows annihilation, but 
that'd mean delving into the realms of manual hard disc setting up, 
which I know absolutely nothing about. Not to mention that I still 
haven't manage to work out what the hell I need to do to set up bloody 
Samba for file and print sharing! So I suppose that's out of the 
equation as well for the moment?

Of course, any ideas/suggestions etc, are as usual, very much appreciated!

regards

John D.