Hi,

Background:
I recently installed Mandrake 9.1 on a Windows XP computer with 1 HD with C: and D: partitions. I resized the C: Partition to install Linux. However, after the installation Linux worked but WinXP didn't. So I reinstalled XP by formatting the D: drive.

The problem now is that when I try to boot Linux, it comes up with the error:
"Checking file systems
/dev/hda8
The superblock could not be read or does not descrive a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the super block is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

fsck.ext3: Bad magic number in superblock while trying to open /dev/hda8
Failed to check filesystem. Do you want to repair the errors? (Y/N)
(beware, you can lose data)"

I'm afraid to say 'Y' because my brother has his stuff on the D: drive. After saying 'N' I get dropped to the shell.

I think the /dev/hda8 is the new D: drive on XP. I ran scandisk on XP for the D: drive and it had no errors.

Can you please tell me how to fix this problem.
Thanks.

please type "fdisk -l /dev/hda" on the console you are dropped to and post the results, this will help us understand what partitions are defined.

(btw: hda8 means this is the 4th logical partition in an extended partition, so it seems as if there are much more than the C: and D: partitions...

It seems as if your /etc/fstab contains wrong partition numbers and/or types, so linux thinks this partition is ext2/3 formatted instead of vfat or ntfs.