John Reiser <jreiser@BitWagon.com> wrote in message:

Many thanks for your replies chaps.

Given that I'm quite inexperienced, I think my best option is to try
and get Partition Magic working. I suppose that by following John's
advice this might be possible, so I have a couple of questions from
here.

> re-create the /boot and NTFS partitions [in order] by entering _exactly_
> the right numbers to describe where they were [are],

Sorry but I don't understand what is meant here. Where do I find the
numbers to describe the correct locations for the partitions?

> write out the partition table, exit, reboot. Re-run fdisk,
> print the partition table, check it.
> Boot a Linux rescue disk, run fsck on both partitions.

So presumably if this works OK, my partition table will be restored to
some semblance of normality, meaning I can recover the situation from
there by running Partition Magic? Or if not, what is the goal of
performing these operations?

> [If you want Partition Magic to work, my guess is that you'll have to
> align the NTFS partition to a cylinder boundary.]

Please can you clarify this for me. How do I determine the cylinder
boundary?

cheers
Matt