fixing overwrite of ntfs xp main

So I have been trying to help another person who overwrote the 2nd partition ntfs the main xp operating partition with jaunty. It appears that the fat32 recovery partition is still there. I am a fairly experienced Linux user and really unable to help them, due to they are rather new at linux. The grub partition shows the fat32 recovery and the jaunty partitions but he has no ntfs for the fat32 to write to. I suggested at the least that shrinking the linux partition and putting a ntfs partion after the fat32 before the linux partition may enable the recovery partition to write to the new ntfs and bring back the xp, but that I was unsure of what was in the data of the original overwritten partition that made it say okay to a overwrite,.I hope this makes sense.

 

Yeah . . . the moron in question (my words, not Wilee's) is me . . . ~LOL~
I'm really frustrated right now because Ubuntu made it really easy to install in what looked like a side-by-side partition. Unfortunately, my lack of experience in hard-drive technicalities made this a disaster.
I'm on here hoping that someone has experience with restoring the system the machine came with without an optical drive. I have a live USB of Ubuntu but no optical drive, nor an XP cd to work with.

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x11a8ba38

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1         764     6136798+  12  Compaq diagnostics
/dev/sda3             765       19457   150151522+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5           19436       19457      176683+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6             765        2631    14996614+  83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

So that's what I'm looking at right now, as well as my partitioning program screenshot :

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Zj2vLYyDEhU/StqiTvD6_sI/AAAAAAAAAAM/USAy4Uhghk8/s1600-h/Screenshot.png
I hope someone knows what I've done and how to undo it (Ctrl + Z didn't work ) . . . I'd really like to have XP running next to Linux. It's kinda important. Thanks to anyone who can help. Thanks again to you, Wilee. You've been great in all this.

 

Your not a moron just trying to learn like the rest of us. I'm glad that this linking you to another forum was a okay move, I was a little worried at overstepping, I really just want to get you up and running if possible. The UF is a great resource but had not really gotten things moving.

 

I found this link on this site for a XP iso download, not being a true windows user i can't really advise on this but it may be a way of getting a acer xp reinstall then you can install the Linux again after.
http://www.aspireoneguide.com/xpinstallu3.html

Here is where the link was located.
viewtopic.php?f=66&t=9589

Feel free to PM me at the UF if you need any help this looks like a straight forward install that should link up the recovery you still have and give you a fresh install that if all goes well can be rewritten in the future if needed from the grub menu in Linux, and you will have a legal copy of the acer xp, which you are entitled to have. With my Linux install the rewrite runs automatically from grub by just clicking on the 1st partition which is the restore data. Hope this is a workable answer to your situation. If you decide to do this you will will probably just let the xp install over write the Linux partitions and install to the whole hard drive, then you would just need to shrink the xp to a usable size with gparted then boot into windows and it will do a disc check and then restart then defrag then install with your Linux usb in the free space left, and hey you could get Koala remix or the linpus whatever you find best for your needs.