[clue-tech] Help Recovering from grub-install error

[gthrelk at comcast.net]

Ok, I messed up - AGAIN!    

I have a dual-boot machine with Win 98se and Fedora 3 on separate disks.  I was 
using grub for the dual boot but had a problem with Win 98se and did an fdisk 
/mbr to bypass the grub boot process.  After booting directly into Windows and 
fixing the windows problem,  I made the mistake of going to Linux and issuing a 
grub-install  /dev/hda1 (first disk - first partition).  Now grub comes up again 
but I can only boot into Fedora.  I can see my Win 98 data via Fedora (mount -t 
vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/win98) so I know it's still there.  Using a windows startup 
floppy disk, it appears that the partition info has been "clobbered".  I  tried 
to do a windows fdisk /mbr but I receive the dreaded error message "Abort, 
Retry, Fail".  Windows fdisk reports the file system as "unknown".  
Powerquest(Symantec) partition magic reports no problems on the partition but I 
can't get powerquest's Drive Image to even attempt to copy the data as it 
reports that a disk manager is detected as being present but not running so 
reboot - whatever that means !?  

Bottom line .  If I can't recover Win 98 no big deal but I NEED the personal 
data files.  After copying them, I can blow away Windows and reinstall if I have 
too.  Best choice would be to fix the partition problem -- next best help would 
be advise as to how to copy the data else where.  Anyone having any ideas - I'd 
appreciate your help.

 Thanks,

Gary Threlkeld