Listen to this for weirdness, in the boot up menu you have the option of two different kernels. 2.6.24-21 and 2.6.22.15, i thought i'd try 2.6.22.15 and the xp disk was there. I mounted it, open it up all is fine.
Great i think, i'll restart to write the kernel numbers down to post here. I'm using 2.6.22.15 now and the disk has gone again lol
Output of sudo fdisk -l
isk /dev/sda: 10.0 GB, 10007101440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1216 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb7b2b7b2
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1159 9309636 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1160 1216 457852+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1160 1216 457821 82 Linux swap / Solaris
I give up lol
edit: I've just noticed something, i just ran ntfs config and the option to tick "enable write support for internal device" is greyed out