[ltp] how to restore original MBR and partition table

[Joe Zien]

I have a new IBM Thinkpad T60 Widescreen laptop that I dual boot
with XP and Linux, it worked great booting XP or linux.
I installed grub, the linux boot loader, in the MBR.
Before I repartitioned the hard drive to install linux,
I used the linux command "dd" to backup the MBR.

I belong to a computer club that is 98% windows users and wanted to
install linux on the club's laptop and to re-install the
MBR as originally configured using "dd" but that corrupted the partition 
table,

I did not get a cd-rom for the Thinkpad with XP, there is a rescue and 
restore partition
on the hard drive that allows you to restore XP to factory condition
but that wipes out your whole hard drive including all my linux partitions.
I just want to restore the XP partition table and MBR.
Is that possible without wiping out the whole drive?

Using an XP cd-rom that I got for my tower, I tried to use the restore
function "fixboot" and "fixmbr" but I got error that it couldn't find the
c:\ drive.

Now all I can use is linux, no great loss because I use mostly linux
but I still want to use XP  for some programs that are not available
for linux.

The main question is can you restore the original partition table
and MBR without re-installing XP from the rescue and restore
function on the Thinkpad?

All the files and programs in XP are still on the computer,
although the rescue cd can't find the c:\ drive.

Thanks in advance,

Joseph Zieniewicz (jozien)
jozien@comcast.net