If damaged HD won't mount, can it be repaired using dd_rhelp?

[ddixonr]

HD from a Dell running Windows stopped booting. A pbr loading descriptor #2 error appears, which I know refers to the Windows partition. Why Dell insists on pre-loading utility and recovery partitions that cause more problems is beyond me. Anyway, tried the Windows recovery console using FIXBOOT and FIXMBR commands. No luck.

Now I turned to the greatest OS ever, Ubuntu. I found the dd_rhelp program, but I believe the HD needs to at least be able to mount in order to start the process. Anybody know about this?

Thanks.

[sefs]

I think it does not need to be mounted. In fact it is better IF IT IS NOT mounted at all.

If you do a

sudo fdisk -l


and you see it listed then thats all you need to go to town on it.