I posted this in another forum, and I was told it would be a good idea to come here. I searched around a bit but only got discussions on ntfs compatability. i was torn between posting in this forum or the hardware one... so hopefully this was good choice since i havent even gotten knoppix installed yet either.

Here is my original post:

Recently i have gotten a new computer. I have moved the hardrives from the old one into the new one. the point of this venture was to eliminate the need for dual booting..so i could have a computer for linux, a computer for windoze both running at once.

I had an 80 gig hardrive, roughly divided in 2. first half was fat32 with windows xp installed. second half was a linux partition.

the second drive was 160 gigs. it had an ntfs filesystem, with a linux a small linux partition as well i added incase of emergencies (i constantly use linux to fix my windows problem.. so hopefully the help i need wont fail me this time)

this ntfs filesystem had my life on it. everything, my company work, books ive begun to write, save files from games, pictures from friends that are irreplaceable, source codes...etc etc..

i also bought a sata hardrive. i plan to use the 160gig completely for linux, while the 200gig sata and the 80 gig will remain my windoze for gaming and storage. some of my linux stuff was put onto the storage drive as a temperary solution during the move.

i installed windows onto the 80 gig.. then i was going to move the 160 gig storage files onto the new sata.. so that the 160 would be free for a linux distro.. but the problem is.. it wont recognise my ntfs storage drive anymore. it just says its not formatted. and i dont want to format it because ill lose everything. so trying not to panic.. i install linux to save the day.. and even linux wont view the contents of the drive..

i dont think my linux reads the sata at all.. so i am assuming my ntfs storage drive is located at /dev/hdd .. which when i try to print the contents to the terminal when in parted, outputs this error:

Error: Invalid partition table - recursive partition on /dev/hdd,
Information: The operating system thinks the geometry on /dev/hdd is 19457/255/63. Therefore, cylinder 1024 ends at 8032,499M.

From what i remmeber the partitions are like this..
114 gigs ntfs (NO operating system)
26 gigs resierfs (linux os)
300 megs linux swap

Roughly those sizes..

so from the looks of it it is just a table error and my files are still there waiting to be salvaged. if there is anything i can do to recover these files i will be discustingly appreciative. it is critical that i get this stuff back...

as much as i am embarassed to say it, i would probably cry if i didnt get this back. seriously.

what can i do? thank you so much.. really.

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I have downloaded a copy of knoppix about a year ago but I never did actually get a try.. downloading/burning a new one wont be a problem at all.. but is it really able to fix my problem? i am too new to knoppix and still rather new to linux in general to know this.

Thanks, it means alot.