cant resize ntfs partition, "sda1 doesn't exist, /etc/mtab missing"

Basically, I'm trying to change OS's from XP to fedora 8 (using a dual boot, that is).  My HD only has one partition (winxp), so first im attempting to shrink it via the version of GParted packaged for the fedora 8 liveCD.

However, GParted is unable to read the contents of my ntfs "sda1" partition.  It shows "sda1" on the main partition list (as well as two unused 8mb partitions on both sides of it).  Its also able to recognize that the partition is 55mb in size, but the used/free space is undetermined ("---") and the the flag is set to "boot".

When I double click on the partition, it brings up an error screen saying that "sda1 doesn't exist" and that "/etc/mtab is probably missing."  Unfortunately, I have no idea what any of this means...

Other oddities that might be related to the problem....
-Last week I was getting a feel for linux using a fedora 7 liveCD.  I was unsure if I wanted to install linux at the time so I didnt resize the partition, but GParted seemed to detect my windows partition correctly (used/unused fields were filled in accurately).  Also, at that time it called the xp partition "hda1" instead of "sda1" (no clue if that makes a difference).
-Also, my winXP partition shows up as a media drive in the 'Computer' directory (whichever one contains the / filesytem and the cd/usb media).  This didnt happen when I was using the fedora 7 livecd.  Seemingly, I am unable to view its contents or do anything with despite it showing up as a media drive.  I also tried right clicking on it and selecting the 'mount' option, but nothing seemed to happen.
-When linux intially boots, right after loading the kernel and just before it displays something about the /mount directories, it mentions something about not reading /etc/fstab and loading defaults.
---Im running XP at the moment, but in a few minutes ill try to reboot in linux and see if I can write down the complete message, as well as post the contents of my mtab & fstab files, since they seem to be the root of the problem

edit: OK, the error after it says upon beginning to load the kernel is...
no fstab.sys, mounting internal defaults
unmounting old /dev
                            /proc
                            /sys

after fedora finishes loading the contents of my /etc/fstab are...
/dev/mapper/livecd-rw   /                       ext3    defaults,noatime 0 0
devpts                  /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
tmpfs                   /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
proc                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0
sysfs                   /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0

and my /etc/mtab is....
/dev/mapper/livecd-rw / ext3 rw,noatime 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
none /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw 0 0
/dev/sr0 /mnt/live iso9660 ro 0 0when you jus
sunrpc /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs rpc_pipefs rw 0 0

edit again: Ok, have some new findings this time--if I mount the winxp partition via 'rightclick->mount' in the 'Computer' directory and reload GParted, it recognizes "sda1" with a mount point of "/media/disk" and the used/unused fields are filled in.  However, it still gives the warning "device sda1 doesn't exist" (yeah...clearly the drive doesnt exist even though youre able to read its contents....).

edit (hopefully final): After creating a new fedora 7 liveCD ive determined the problem is with neither fstab nor mtab.  In fedora 7, GParted seems to work fine and the /etc/fstab&mtab files are identical the ones I posted above.  However, fedora 7 still doesnt display the windowsxp partition as a media device in the computer directory, whereas fedora 8 does.  This leads me to believe that in adding the ability to innately browse ntfs partitions, fedora 8 has somehow interfered with the way GParted works.  If anyone has any additional info about the problem or knows of a work around (namely disabling the default ntfs browsing in fedora8) id appreciate it.