Hey, I am really sorry but I’d appreciate if you just copy and paste the code that I have to type. And please tell nothing will happen to my failsafe. 
I understood till skip.
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1275 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 1276 4863 28820610 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 1276 1373 787153+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 1374 2197 6610747 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 2197 2256 481918+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8 2257 2909 5245191 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 2910 3825 7357738+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 3826 4863 8337703+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
So according to the above data the start sector is 1275 and end sector is 1024(I think because it is written 10241406. So I think 1406 is the blocks as per the above data).
Now if I add them it will be 1275+1024=2299.
So my code should be dd if=/dev/sda of=xpbuvbr count=1 bs=512 skip=
in skip should I put …?
I think the end is 10241406 because it is a number greater than the start. SO will the corruption of sda1 result in the corruption of the entire hard drive?
And is it dd if=/dev/sda or if=/dev/sda1
The fdisk output you currently have is in blocks, but we need sectors.
fdisk /dev/hda -l -u
Post fdisk if unsure.
dd if=/dev/sda of=xpbuvbr count=1 bs=512 skip=(end sector of sda1)
Very important now to look at the raw data in xpbuvbr to be sure it is the backup VBR. IF the partition was not formatted using XP or partition was resized/moved the data could be wrong.
xxd xpbuvbr
You should see beginning at line 0180 left side:
A disk read error occurred
NTLDR is missing
NTLDR is compressed
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart
If unsure you can post output from xxd xpbuvbr.
Only if you see the text above:
dd of=/dev/sda1 if=xpbuvbr count=1 bs=512
Be sure to notice where I use /dev/sda and /dev/sda1. If you make a typo with the last dd command, it could be bad.
If the text above was incorrect, you will need to use “testdisk” to rebuild the Volume boot record, read its How-to, it should work.
sudo /sbin/fdisk -l -u
Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders, total 78140160 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc557c557
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 20482874 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 20482875 78124094 28820610 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 20482938 22057244 787153+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 22057308 35278801 6610747 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 35278803 36242639 481918+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8 36242703 46733084 5245191 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 46733148 61448624 7357738+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 61448688 78124094 8337703+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda16320482874102414067***HPFS/NTFS
next command
dd if=/dev/sda of=xpbuvbr count=1 bs=512 skip=20482874
that will read the last sector of sda1 into file xpbuvbr. NOTICE: it is if=/dev/sda not sda1.
linux-zrf6:~ # dd if=/dev/sda of=xpbuvbr count=1 bs=512 skip=20482874
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0.000112794 s, 4.5 MB/s
linux-zrf6:~ # xxd xpbuvbr
0000000: eb52 904e 5446 5320 2020 2000 0208 0000 .R.NTFS …
0000010: 0000 0000 00f8 0000 3f00 ff00 3f00 0000 …?..?..
0000020: 0000 0000 8000 8000 fb8a 3801 0000 0000 …8…
0000030: 0000 0c00 0000 0000 af88 1300 0000 0000 …
0000040: f600 0000 0100 0000 5a37 c550 61c5 50e8 …Z7.Pa.P.
0000050: 0000 0000 fa33 c08e d0bc 007c fbb8 c007 …3…|…
0000060: 8ed8 e816 00b8 000d 8ec0 33db c606 0e00 …3…
0000070: 10e8 5300 6800 0d68 6a02 cb8a 1624 00b4 …S.h…hj…$…
0000080: 08cd 1373 05b9 ffff 8af1 660f b6c6 4066 …s…f…@f
0000090: 0fb6 d180 e23f f7e2 86cd c0ed 0641 660f …?..Af.
00000a0: b7c9 66f7 e166 a320 00c3 b441 bbaa 558a …f…f. …A…U.
00000b0: 1624 00cd 1372 0f81 fb55 aa75 09f6 c101 .$…r…U.u…
00000c0: 7404 fe06 1400 c366 601e 0666 a110 0066 t…f`…f…f
00000d0: 0306 1c00 663b 0620 000f 823a 001e 666a …f;. …:…fj
00000e0: 0066 5006 5366 6810 0001 0080 3e14 0000 .fP.Sfh…>…
00000f0: 0f85 0c00 e8b3 ff80 3e14 0000 0f84 6100 …>…a.
0000100: b442 8a16 2400 161f 8bf4 cd13 6658 5b07 .B…$…fX.
0000110: 6658 6658 1feb 2d66 33d2 660f b70e 1800 fXfX…-f3.f…
0000120: 66f7 f1fe c28a ca66 8bd0 66c1 ea10 f736 f…f…f…6
0000130: 1a00 86d6 8a16 2400 8ae8 c0e4 060a ccb8 …$…
0000140: 0102 cd13 0f82 1900 8cc0 0520 008e c066 … …f
0000150: ff06 1000 ff0e 0e00 0f85 6fff 071f 6661 …o…fa
0000160: c3a0 f801 e809 00a0 fb01 e803 00fb ebfe …
0000170: b401 8bf0 ac3c 0074 09b4 0ebb 0700 cd10 …<.t…
0000180: ebf2 c30d 0a41 2064 6973 6b20 7265 6164 …A disk read
0000190: 2065 7272 6f72 206f 6363 7572 7265 6400 error occurred.
00001a0: 0d0a 4e54 4c44 5220 6973 206d 6973 7369 …NTLDR is missi
00001b0: 6e67 000d 0a4e 544c 4452 2069 7320 636f ng…NTLDR is co
00001c0: 6d70 7265 7373 6564 000d 0a50 7265 7373 mpressed…Press
00001d0: 2043 7472 6c2b 416c 742b 4465 6c20 746f Ctrl+Alt+Del to
00001e0: 2072 6573 7461 7274 0d0a 0000 0000 0000 restart…
00001f0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 83a0 b3c9 0000 55aa …U.
This is my output for dd command. I am going to restart my system. Hope I come back using the same system without having to format.:’(
Hey, success. Now what next?lol!
Hey any one there who can help me? I have the windows partition now, it is just that I am not able to get into windows. Here is my menu.lst
Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Tue Apr 7 16:13:24 IST 2009
default 1
timeout 10
gfxmenu (hd0,7)/boot/message
##YaST - activate
###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title SUSE LINUX
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-HTS541040G9SA00_MPBBP0X2JM5BNM-part8 repair=1 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-HTS541040G9SA00_MPBBP0X2JM5BNM-part7 splash=silent showopts vga=0x317
initrd /boot/initrd
###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe – SUSE LINUX
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-HTS541040G9SA00_MPBBP0X2JM5BNM-part8 showopts ide=nodma apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x317
initrd /boot/initrd
###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Windows###
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,7)
chainloader (hd0,0) +1
if sda1 is the XP as in your fdisk
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 20482874 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS ?XP?
/dev/sda2 * 20482875 78124094 28820610 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 20482938 22057244 787153+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 22057308 35278801 6610747 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 35278803 36242639 481918+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8 36242703 46733084 5245191 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 46733148 61448624 7357738+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 61448688 78124094 8337703+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
then this should do it
###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Windows###
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader (hd0,0) +1
Hey, thank you all. I am able to log into Windows.
First I used the xxd commnad, then I could see windows in linux the I change menu.lst as
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
Thank you all once again:):):)
Happy to hear you sorted it!