Dude, I just can't imagine that happening .... it's almost impossible .... what the hell wen't on????

By the way. Are you sure you mean Partition Table??? That would requite a total format or your drive ... you may just have had a *boot table* problem, using either grub or lilo. That in no way harms your data and is usually easy to recover...

Like I said, Linux has no idea about XP's 'dynamic disks'. This way, it thought that my partition table was corrupted and wiped it out.

And I DID lose data!
But I recovered it all using a free tool called 'PC Inspector File Recovery' (aka PCI FR).

Then it's not Mandrake's fault completely. If you are using dynamic disks you should have choosen a manual partitioning, as you probably will have to do installing another distro.

I know!

If it would have asked me! If it finds an unknown bootloader, it overwrites it by default (though I haven't tried 'EXPERT' mode - yet!).

And other distros recognize the "dynamic disk" (I have no idea what this means...) or not destroy them???

Well ... on the installation there is a screen to set up the boot loader ... you just have to set it up correcty (to don´t install boot loader), althought Lilo and grub are great so it´s not really bad.

stop messing around with both of them gentoo is the way to go, it's the fastest, and the best in every way.
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REGULAR GENTOO = ftp://gentoo.mirrors.tds.net/gentoo/releases/

if you do regular gentoo, read the installation manual.
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!!EASY!! : GENTOO ANACONDA INSTALLER = http://desktop.vidalinux.com/index.p...d=15&Itemid=38

if you do gentoo anaconda, here's how to get it started, dont emerge xorg-x11, because it gets installed with the isntaller.

# run the installation
# boot it up
# run "emerge sync"
# run "emerge gnome" OR "emerge gnome-light"
....
If you don't like gnome, run "emerge kdebase" OR "emerge icewm" OR "emerge fluxbox" OR, w/e.

it will take a little bit to emerge gnome or kde, but shouldnt be over an hour, because it doesnt have to compile X.

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in your situation, I'd ditch debian, get gentoo anaconda installer, it's the same installer as redhat/fedora, and it installs the bootloader, X, configures users, and root passwd, then emerging gnome/kde will get you everything you need, and have a working system very quickly

the anaconda installer will do MOST, nearly all necessary configuration automatically, with regular gentoo, you have to do it all manually, I don't use gentoo anaconda, I use regular gentoo, but I have used vida once.

in other words, gentoo is faster than debian and mandriva, has a better package manager, with the most files, 119,000+, compared to debians 15-19,000, and mandrakes some odd number below what apt gets.

cough cough ubuntu cough cough I like Mandrake, but eversince it became Mandrive it haas become buggy as hell. I got LE2005 and it worked well the first couple days but then it started crashing. It was worse than Windows ME (yes hard to believe). I realy suggest Ubuntu, why? Debian based, and incredible unofficial guide to getting everthing running smoothly. Here's the Unofficial Ubuntu Guide . It is insane, and it works for Kubuntu (yell all you want at me about Kubutu being buggy and ubuntu not, I say use the guide and it's smooth). oh yea, and when I checked which version of KDE mandriva had guess what it was 3.2!!!!!!!!!!!! 3.4 is out already and they have 3.2, I don't even understand why the don't have 3.3 and for a name with 2005 it's pretty misleading.

I'm with Ubuntu now. The unofficial guide is the best. What other distros have that?
Gnome is only 2.1......
Can't wait for Breezy in October!