fdisk -l (<= little L)
Ok tried the fdisk-1 again and it did something different this time. This time this comes up:
fdisk; invalid option - - '1'
usage:
fdisk [options] <disk> change partition table
fdisk [options] - <disk> list partition tables
fdisk -s <partition> give partition size (s) in blocks
options;
-b <size> sector size (512, 1024, 2048 or 4096
-c switch off DOS-compatible mode
-h print help
-u <size> give sizes in sectors instead of cylinders
-v print version
-C <number> specify the number of cylinders
-H <number> specify the number of heads
-S <number> specify the number of sectors per track
fdisk -l (<= little L)
Does the fact this stuff comes up now mean that It`s not so bad and the hard drive isn`t damaged, something i`m able to fix? obviously with your help Werner. Is this all to do with the partitions?
sorry, i`ve been putting in a 1 instead of an l, will do it again and let you know what comes up.
ok, now on the screen it says:
Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 head, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
sector size (logical/physical) : 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal) : 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Disk /dev/sda doesn`t contain a valid partition table
Hope this helps, sorry for my mistake.
Ok, your disk is still alive. Try the recovery with "testdisk" (within the Knoppix CD)
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
especially: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
Read all carefully! It's not a job for beginners!
I`ll give that a go, thanks again Werner. I`ll post again either later or tomorrow to let you know how it goes.
I appreciate your help.

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