mandrake partition broken. need help.

my mandrake linux partition broke after installing win98se on the second partition i tried using the repair thing on the cd but it wouldnt work. is it posible to save the files i have on that partition?? and how can i format it??? without having to get into linux.

How did you install 98SE? Most likely its installer overwrote the master boot record, so your computer boots only to it now. You can (possibly) fix it by typing fdisk /mbr in MS-DOS mode. This will restore the MBR to its original state, which means it won't go to 98SE. You can then add it to Mandrake's bootloader.

If, however, the installation screwed up your partition table, it's more complicated to restore it. Try the above suggestion first, post back if it doesn't work.

tried your suggestiopn with the fdisk /mbr is didnt work must be the serious problem.

A bit more information is needed.

How did you install 98SE? Did it ask you to repartition your hdd?

Which version of Mandrake are you using?

win98se did not ask to repartition the hdd

mandrake version 8.2

Weird.. Maybe you should try some partition recovery tools for Windows, like Powerquest's Lost and Found. I'll post more once I'll test what Mandrake's "rescue" does.

will powestquest lost and found recover linux files???