Hi Guy's. Yes, I made a right old mess of things and hadn't a clue as to how to rectify it. With hindsight I would have made a back-up pf my MBR, Grub, Lilo or whateverbefore I started. But in my haste I didn't. After I made my request for help I checked in, but there were no replies and I put it down to being Saturday. I don't know why, but I just got this mad impulse (dangerous thing at 77 years of age) and dug out my Debian disks. Placed disk one in the drive and switched on. Would you believe it, Debian came up and began to install the software. I let it run though to where it was partitioning the hard drive. Made a right mess of partitioning, as I knew I would and switched off the computer. Switched it back on again and.....Hey Presto.....there was my Win XP in all it's glory. Checked it all out and as far as I can see everything is fine. Fortunately I had copied over all my important web addresses. All I have lost are a few hundred personal address in my e-mail set-up, but this is a small price to pay. You guy's are a great encouragement and I want to thank you all for being there, ready to help in time of need. Many many thanks. Grandad.