saikee,
I have main Windows XP installation on hda1, but keep my document files on hda5, by soft linking to them (linux's ln=windows's junction.exe, third party download). Both are ntfs partitions, hda5 being on a logical hda2 partition:
Code:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 5099 40957686 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 5100 9732 37214572+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 5100 9732 37214541 7 HPFS/NTFS
As hda5 is a ntfs partition, by copying the 512B header from it I was able to mount the hda1 partition under Linux.
Unfortunately (for me to completely answer your question) after doing that I was not sure wether hda1 will boot right away, so I repaired the hda1 partition with the suggested testdisk, as it was so easy to install testdisk under my FC5. After dd+testdisk, windows was able to boot normally.
But I am not sure if dd repaired the boot problem totally or if the testdisk helped anyhow.
At this time (after being rebooted to windows and back to linux), my hda1 and hda5 headers differ only in first few bytes:
beggining of hda1:
Code:
0000000 52eb 4e90 4654 2053 2020 0020 0802 0000
0000010 0000 0000 f800 0000 003f 00ff 003f 0000
0000020 0000 0000 0080 0080 edeb 04e1 0000 0000
0000030 0000 000c 0000 0000 1ede 004e 0000 0000
beggining of hda5:
Code:
0000000 52eb 4e90 4654 2053 2020 0020 0802 0000
0000010 0000 0000 f800 0000 003f 00ff 003f 0000
0000020 0000 0000 0080 0080 b299 046f 0000 0000
0000030 0000 000c 0000 0000 fb29 0046 0000 0000
Comparing hexdumps of both headers (stored in utility files a1d and a5d):
Code:
diff a1d a5d
3,4c3,4
< 0000020 0000 0000 0080 0080 edeb 04e1 0000 0000
< 0000030 0000 000c 0000 0000 1ede 004e 0000 0000
---
> 0000020 0000 0000 0080 0080 b299 046f 0000 0000
> 0000030 0000 000c 0000 0000 fb29 0046 0000 0000
When looking to this difference, I could conclude two things:
- wheter the Windows boot or new driver install changed those 8 bytes or
- testdisk changed the hda1 header before the Windows boot (now I belive it's this option).
So probbably it was like that: dd made my partition mountable, testdisk made it bootable.