Actually, I had to install that older version of fedora for a study and assignment purpose.

At the moment I just want to recover my data from winxp partition.

Erik, can u please check out post no 14 for my current issue and give me some recommendation for final steps.

Thanks,
Ashish

When you use partition table editing programs like "fdisk" or "cfdisk" you should use the device name without the partition number.

fdisk -l /dev/sda

Your partition table looks correct. The most important thing is that it starts at cylinder 1 (sector 63).

You should now be able to mount the partition (/dev/sda1).

mkdir /mnt/windows
mount -t ntfs -o ro /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows

Use normal Linux commands to access the files.

ls /mnt/windows

If you type file or folder names containing spaces either use quotes or backslash followed by space.

ls "/mnt/windows/Program Files"
ls /mnt/windows/Program\ Files

You can create other mount points and mount other devices to copy your files.

mkdir /mnt/thumb
mount -t ntfs-3g -o rw /dev/sdb1 /mnt/thumb

The exact mount command will depend on the file system used on the device.

You may also be able to boot from the Windows OS. Make sure that you set the "Boot" flag for the partition using Linux "fdisk" or "cfdisk". That will mark the partition as "Active" and cause it to be the default boot partition. If you boot Windows it may write over your Linux files because you included that space in your NTFS partition. It's a bit difficult to figure out the correct information to create the Linux partition. If you need the files from Linux then don't boot Windows.

Hi,

I tried to mount the partition but message was like unable to mount system or resource may be busy. I also tried to with NTFS command but it says no specific device exists to mount. I also put proper boot flag through fdisk option.

Well, when I try to boot from hard disk it shows just a semi colon and cursor blinks like this ;_

What could be the problem, any idea. fdisk -l gives everything ok.

Are you sure that your Linux boot CD supports the "ntfs" file system? That message sounds like a problem in Linux not a problem with the hard disk formatting.

The booting problem could possibly be fixed by running "fixboot c:" from the Windows XP Recovery Console. In fact, what I suggest is that you do is boot a Windows XP Setup CD and select the options to run the Recovery Console. See if you can now list files on drive C using the "DIR" command.

Even if the partition table looks correct, the partition may be in a different location than the second cylinder (cylinder 1 or sector 63).

Perhaps more than the partition table is wrong. If the Recovery Console can't see drive C then I think you are at the point where you need to use partition or file recovery software.

You might have better results if you can connect the hard disk to a different computer. At least then you will be able to use programs like the "DSKPROBE" utility from the Windows XP Support tools to dump out sectors on the hard disk.

in the very old and unsupported fedora 6 the OLD and now DEFUNCT / dead ntfs kmod was used
that ntfs is READ ONLY you can not wright to a ntfs partition at all . you can set it to wright BUT THAT WILL KILL WINDOWS because it will over wright the windows system files and ever the partition table .

fedora 6 is READ ONLY for ntfs windows partitions

fedora 10 ( and soon 11 )has FULL read / wright support for ntfs and WILL AUTO MOUNT the windows partition for you

Hi

Here is some good news to share with you all today ! I recovered my data successfully, here are the updates:

Might be because my fedora version was little old it didn't supported some commands but something else helped me

I used the windows xp cd and the setup just detected old windows directory. Since earlier I used the fdisk to make my full hard disk into one single partition consisting of NTFS file system, i had a hope that now data is safe and now only XP setup will take care of OS needs. I just installed XP and got everything as expected.

I want to mark this post as issue solved, so that other users who faced similar problem can take help

I appreciate all the good support from respective members for giving their ideas. Thanks a lot to Erik for consistent follow-up on each updates.

Ashish