Need help, corrupted MBR

[Noidly1]

Anyone know if there is a Linux version of Ranish?

I have a hard drive that was singular NTFS partitioned (1 primary) with XP pro and decided to try Debian and proceeded to resize the NTFS patition with, I forget which, Partition Magic or Acronis.

Anyway, I resized the NTFS primary down to a smaller size and created a swap partition and a ext3(?) partition for Debian, via from the back-end, the freed up area.

After I commited the "ACT", the partitioning program created a very small partition in front of the NTFS partition.
That was not a problem because, after the resize, I rebooted the computer to see if XP would work and it DID, no problem.

Now the Not-So-Fun part;

I followed the instructions as I was installing Debian and all was fine till I got to the "Install Grub" part.
First off, I have no clue as to where it is/was to be installed and just hit "enter".

After the fact, I continued installing Debian. Once I got to the point where you reboot the computer, my Life Ended...

When I boot the computer, it comes up;
boot from cd..
boot from cd..
..........................................

(the bios couldn't read the MBR and locked up)

Here's the kicker;
If I use; fdisk(dos), Partition Magic, Acronis, Ranish, Disk Editor or any other dos or MS partitioning programs, the drive comes up UN-partitioned...

Now,,, if I use any Linux CD, live or not, they all SEE the partitions as well as the NTFS partition. WTF???

This is why I need a linux version of Ranish so I can rebuild the MBR under Linux.
I have way too many programs and data files to loose that CAN NOT be replaced.

As for backing up that drive, 1; Ooops, yes I should have, and 2; thats about 45 gigs worth...

Any help would be Greatly Appreciated...

Thanks.

[Noidly1]

One thing I forgot to ask;

Is there a way that I can copy the NTFS partition to another drive?

[lugoteehalt]

One thing I forgot to ask;

Is there a way that I can copy the NTFS partition to another drive?

Partimage or perhaps the dd command. If linux is not working you'll perhaps have to use a live CD.

It is not obvious, though I may well be missing something, why you did not use the partitioning program in the Debian installer program. You might as well just try reinstalling, if it says you've got windows just press enter for grub like you did before.

Sorry if I'm missing the obvious.

[devils casper]

Check if installer has set boot flag for Debian's root partition? Post the output of fdisk -l command here.

su -
/sbin/fdisk -l

* Its small L in fdisk -l.