Hi! I have a big problem: I wanted to install gentoo linux 2006 and I used fdisk to create a linux root partition and now somehow I can't find my windows partitions!! Please help me!! What can I do. I haven't formated anything yet so I think there is still hope!!!

What do you mean you used fdisk to create a root partition? Do you mean you created a Linux partition that you plan to mount at /? Exactly what did you do? Are you following the installation instructions provided by www.gentoo.org? If so, what step did you complete last?

Well it's like this: on my hdd I have 3 windows partitions and 2 linux partitions. I have one with windows xp - it's a primary partitions, and 2 logical partitions in the extended logical partition, I also have a swap partition and i used to have a linux partition but i deleted it with fdisk and then I tried to create it again and when it asked me what type of partition I want (primary or logical), I chose a logical partition and I saved the changes, but I didn't format anything...

can you at least see your primary partion WinXP)?

We should chat about this on ICQ

Yes the primary partition is visible, but I cant see what's in the extended partition.

You may try "gpart" and see what's the result.

ICQ #117685894

When i use gpart it shows me the partitions like they should be

what's your screen name in icq?

this is what I get using gpart:
####################################
Begin scan...
Possible partition(Windows NT/W2K FS), size(4094mb), offset(0mb)
Possible extended partition at offset(4094mb)
Possible partition(Windows NT/W2K FS), size(61443mb), offset(4094mb)
Possible partition(Windows NT/W2K FS), size(114753mb), offset(65538mb)
Possible partition(Linux swap), size(251mb), offset(180291mb)
Possible partition(ReiserFS filesystem), size(10236mb), offset(180542mb)
End scan.

Checking partitions...

* Warning: more than 4 primary partitions: 5.
Partition(OS/2 HPFS, NTFS, QNX or Advanced UNIX): primary
Partition(OS/2 HPFS, NTFS, QNX or Advanced UNIX): primary
Partition(OS/2 HPFS, NTFS, QNX or Advanced UNIX): primary
Partition(Linux swap or Solaris/x86): primary
Partition(Linux ext2 filesystem): invalid primary
Ok.

Guessed primary partition table:
Primary partition(1)
type: 007(0x07)(OS/2 HPFS, NTFS, QNX or Advanced UNIX)
size: 4094mb #s(8385864) s(63-8385926)
chs: (0/1/1)-(521/254/60)d (0/1/1)-(521/254/60)r

Primary partition(2)
type: 007(0x07)(OS/2 HPFS, NTFS, QNX or Advanced UNIX)
size: 61443mb #s(125837080) s(8385993-134223072)
chs: (522/1/1)-(1023/254/63)d (522/1/1)-(8354/254/61)r

Primary partition(3)
type: 007(0x07)(OS/2 HPFS, NTFS, QNX or Advanced UNIX)
size: 114753mb #s(235014816) s(134223138-369237953)
chs: (1023/254/63)-(1023/254/63)d (8355/1/1)-(22983/254/57)r

Primary partition(4)
type: 130(0x82)(Linux swap or Solaris/x86)
size: 251mb #s(514080) s(369237960-369752039)
chs: (1023/254/63)-(1023/254/63)d (22984/0/1)-(23015/254/63)r

I've solved my problem using testdisk. Thank u Sören Schneider and all the others for their help!