This is the line for a bootable ntfs partition.

Reboot. Should come up in XP. If it doesn't, then use your XP recovery console (or whatever) and do an fdisk /mbr to again rewrite the master boot record (though it looks OK now).

edit: This of course presumes that your XP partition really is on hda1 and not on hda5.

Sorry I've been out this morning.

It sounds like you are already in much better hands than my own here. jiml8 has gone beyond me, but the advice he's offering here all makes perfect sense.

GParted still idientifies hda1 as unknown file system. I am sorry, but I believe I did everything just like you wrote. But wasn't there the possibility that this partition should be as almost in the beggining as hda5 from the extended partition hda1?

Don't go back and edit a post after I've responded to it - particularly after you too have responded to it. Destroys coherency and pretty much guarantees that I'll miss the edit. Further, has the effect of suggesting that you had placed more information in the earlier post than you had in fact placed there.

where did i do wrong?

Yes, that has been the question, hasn't it.

Your original post identifies it as an extended partition but you later said that originally it wasn't identified as an extended partition but as a primary partition until you did something or other. The mods I had you make turned it into a physical partition.

If rebooting didn't work then some further diagnosis is required.

First of all, did this system ever boot into XP with the current partition structure (rather, the partition structure identified in your first post)?

edit: sorry; I am using "physical" and "primary" interchangeably when I am referring to partitions. I shouldn't do that, but when I do what I mean is "primary" partition.

i now know that i should not edit the posts, but more important, what should I do now?

Have you read my post: "Today, 06:05 PM"?

I believe so, but know that you ask me, maybe after going through the partitioning step of the Ubuntu installation, the system turned hda1 into hda1 extended and made the windows partition hda5 I don't know how.

But since I was able to mount the windows partition when it was hda5, maybe I need to make it back that way.

I had it like hda5 and it was mountable before I did the changes to menu.lst: the ones with lots of "hide"s.

Yes.

Did you try to do an fdisk /mbr to reload the XP boot code again? With a screwed partition table, it might not have gone in right before.

Again, did this configuration ever successfully boot into XP? In other words, should we assume that hda1 is indeed an extended partition and the system is on hda5?

I am a newbie, so, I don't know what to do know. Even to try and make hda1 extended and hda5 the windows partition, if that is the best thing to try...

And I repeat the question. Did this system, as configured, ever successfully boot into XP? Yes or no.

I did not try any fdisk /mbr command: just the fixmbr as told before.

About:

"Again, did this configuration ever successfully boot into XP? In other words, should we assume that hda1 is indeed an extended partition and the system is on hda5?"

I believe so, regarding the fact that I was able to mount the xp partition when it was as hda5 while using the live cd just as I am doing now...

In any case, to change hda1 into an extended partition, repeat post 50 on this thread, but make this change:

Change the line:
to this:
When you do this, hda1 will be identified as an extended partition.

edit: Sorry. Error in original post. Correction is now in place

I must thank you for keeping trying to help me. I really appreciate it. It's not that anybody would do that.

EDIT

I'm gonna try that now.

You must have forgot something, because the two lines of code you just wrote down are exactly equal.

EDIT

I now read your correction