Not sure what I got, but there's a lot of it:
# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xaa28aa28
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 6079 48829536 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 6080 6322 1951897+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 6323 7295 7815622+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 7296 13374 48829567+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 7296 12158 39062016 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 12159 13374 9767488+ 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table
root@Ubunutu:/home/robert# dd if=/dev/sda of=sda_MBR bs=512 count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes (512 B) copied, 5.3148e-05 s, 9.6 MB/s
root@Ubunutu:/home/robert# dd if=/dev/sda of=sda_MBR bs=512 count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes (512 B) copied, 6.2169e-05 s, 8.2 MB/s
root@Ubunutu:/home/robert# dd if=/dev/sdb of=sdb_MBR bs=512 count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0.00115342 s, 444 kB/s
root@Ubunutu:/home/robert# hexedit sda_MBR
The program 'hexedit' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
apt-get install hexedit
bash: hexedit: command not found
root@Ubunutu:/home/robert# apt-get install hexedit
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
linux-headers-2.6.28-11 linux-headers-2.6.28-11-generic
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
hexedit
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 28.4kB of archives.
After this operation, 115kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1
http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/universe hexedit 1.2.12-3 [28.4kB]
Fetched 28.4kB in 0s (35.2kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package hexedit.
(Reading database ... 142208 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking hexedit (from .../hexedit_1.2.12-3_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up hexedit (1.2.12-3) ...
root@Ubunutu:/home/robert# hexedit sda_MBR
root@Ubunutu:/home/robert# hexedit sdb_MBR
root@Ubunutu:/home/robert# hexedit sda_MBR
root@Ubunutu:/home/robert# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table
Lot of info, but does it get us closer to a solution?