So in installing linux I blew away my master boot record. I was wondering if there is a way I can recover that or if due to the closed source nature of windows I simply must rebuild my system around that?

You do not have to reinstall windows.
So what linux distribution and bootloader i.e. grub or lilo did you install?

I assume whatever bootloader installed didn't work. So what version of windows is loaded on your PC?

Oh sorry, specifics do matter:

I was running windows XP and I was installing a grub based Suse 9.0 install

Dear Michaelk,

I had a similar problem, but the OS on 2 different HD's,
with bootfloppy, after somegood starts i decided to change bootrecord towards the hda.
I am not sure if that was wrong , maybe some trigger from Lilo might have activated my (good) AV-scanner, for i could not restart my W98 . Had some procedure executable supposed to be infected with virus (seemed to be fake).

Susue cannot mount obviously the W98 partition though i am still busy checking and the hda is readable with DOS, Winstart floppy will only start dos, no win. THen i get a VFAT error, and about the registry a remark.

Suse i could recover. but the W98 i did not format.
I want to repair it not the stupid way.
I had Opera running as my browser fine.

X!

...The meaning is mainly:
to have run W98 for transmitting purposes of data and useful executables, and eventual inbetween work for fixing network on router.

My son, fimion, decided to install Linux from some Suse 7.2 CDs I had sitting around. After working with it for awhile he said he was having trouble getting back into Windows XP. After talking to him some and doing some investigation it appears that he has installed Linux with his entire 60gb drive dedicated to Suse. I suspect that this means his XP is history. However, I offered to see if I could find anyone who might be able to suggest a way to look at the disk for data from XP.

I'm not sure how careful Suse is at formatting a drive. Did it simply set up a boot sector and directory structure so that the bit patterns of the original files are still there or did it actually rewrite all the bytes on the disk drive to some set pattern of 0s and/or 1s?

If it just set up the directory but the bits are still there, are there any suggestions for how I could examine that untouched portion of disk to try to recover the XP files?

I've got significant experience programming in a variety of languages on Unix boxes of various flavors, but I'm not a sys admin. Is there any hope here short of mega-dollar investigative services?

Any help would be appreciated.

Peace,
kriviere (for some reason my registration email hasn't come yet but my son got his right away, so I'm posting now as him rather than waiting till my slow email arrives)