Linux Partitions Disappearing

[SilentAssasin64]

Hello.  So today I turn on my computer like every other normal day right?  So it's starts booting up fine, passes post test and all that good stuff.  It gets to the boot loader and automatically boots into Ubuntu for me.  I walk away, come back 5 minutes later only to come back to a error on the screen.  I can't remember exactly what it said but it was something along the lines of the root partition was damaged in some way or something like that.  So I just think to myself, "This is gay" and hit the restart button.  Only this time, it gets to the GRUB bootloader and I get an error 17...

So I pop in my Ubuntu Live CD to see if I can fix it via "fsck -a", only it cannot view/see/mount my Linux partitions.  So just to make sure I pop in my SLAX Live CD (which I am using right now) to see if I could fix it in here.  Nope, same problem.  Now, I don't believe that I changed anything in Ubuntu when I was using it last night.  I did happen to not shut it down properly (could this cause corruption?) last night. So I'm just here in SLAX trying to figure out what has gone wrong.  Here are my system specs:

Sempron 64 3400+
1GB RAM (2x512 PC3200)
GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
3xHDD's
1 - 10GB Windows XP Pro SP2 install drive
1 - 30GB Windows/Linux storage drive (FAT32)
1 - 80GB (3 partitions) A - Windows Storage (~70GB) B - Linux Root Partition (~9GB) C - Linux Swap partition (~1GB)

If there is any additional info that you need just let me know and I'll happily supply you with it.

Thanks in advance for the help!

[GX1_Man]

I think it was a result of how you created/set up those partitions. As I recall you had a LOT of problems.

[SilentAssasin64]

Heh, yup.  So how would I go about preventing this in the future?

[GX1_Man]

Guaranteed so easy you could get it without difficulty on the first try?

Delete all partitions after backing up data. Create a primary partition and load XP on a larger partition than the 10 gig you are currently using and format as FAT32. Do not allocate any of the existing disk space remaining. Install any linux and let it set itself up and use the remaining free disk space for itself, swap and use it's default boot loader.

Both O/S can read and write to the FAT32 partitions.

YOu can do all of this the way you originally had the drives allocated, but I want you to see that it will work first.

[SilentAssasin64]

All right.  I'll try that out and let ya know how it goes.  It might take a fairly decent amout of time as I has TONZ to backup and the only method I have of using to do so is burning to DVD's...*sigh*