Partition table error #110... HELP PLEASE!

Hi guys,
I recently installed Ubuntu Linux on my laptop and today I decided to do a clean install of it by formating the partition it created when I installed it and then re-installing it. I installed Partition Magic 8 in Windows, but it couldn't open due to partition names not being recognised or something. Anyway I decided to boot into Linux using the live CD (which allows you to boot linux from the cd), thinking I could then format the linux partition from there. But the CD boot brought up loads of errors, and to cut a long story short, I made a stupid mistake and shut the computer off while it was in the middle of trying to boot from the CD. I now can't boot into either linux or windows (I dual booted) so decided to reformat the hard drive (which don't mind because I wanted to re-install windows anyway). The thing is partition magic 7.0 running in DOS won't let me format the drive, all it tells me is "Partition table error #110 found". It dosn't show the hard drive or partitions, under partitions it lists one which is BAD. When I select format it shows the disk as one partition of the correct size, but apply the format brings up "Error #4 Bad argument/parameter".

Normally on a regular hard disk with such problems I would stick it into another computer as slave and work from there but this is a laptop hard drive and I only have 1 laptop. I downloaded the "Ultimate boot CD" full of tools but the rescue partition and save partition tools seem to crash after loading at a blank screen with flashing cursor at the top right hand corner.

The best case senario would be for me to save the contents of this disk and just remove the linux partition, but if necessary I don't mind formatting the entire disk. If someone could guide me on either of these I would be very grateful.