Disappearing Partitions (WinME)

IBM NetVista
WinME
Maxtor 80G with 8 meg on board RAM
c: (boot) = 20G partition
d: = 30G Partition
e: = 30G Partition

History:
- Old HD crapped out (clunk, clunk, clunck, ssccchhrrrtttt, clunk.......)
- Bought new Drive
- Fdisked / Format (Fat32)
- Fresh Install of WinME using IBM CD
- Boot to WinME -- Sees C: D: and E: without problem.
- I could write to C: D: & E without problems for a few days.

Then BOOM, D: and E: are gone.
Flashed bios with latest version from IBM
re fdisked and formated the drives. (Fat32)
I can now see D: and E: again.

4-5 days later: Boom: same thing.
Take the drive, put it into other machines: Norton, PC-Cillin and Mcafee
scan it
(I fix PC's for a living, I tend to have a little of everything)
Its clean

I wipe it and start from scratch (again).
New WinME install from IBM CD
Fdisk C:E: 20gig/20gig/40gig (fat32)
Good for 4-5 days.
Now, D: and E: are gone AGAIN!!??

Any clues? Hints? Tips?
I can SEE the partitions using fdisk: They show up as NON-DOS partitions.
(when they were clearly fat32 before). Deleting E using fdisk makes D: into
one huge non-dos partition.

I am at a serious loss.

Did you try setting up the drive with the utilities from the manufacturer
rather than FDISK from the ME or IBM CD?

When I bought my WD 120Gb drives FDISK wouldn't work correctly till after I
ran theWD software that I downloaded and used to make a boot floppy. The WD
software allowed me to make partitions of 32Gb, 32Gb, 32Gb and 24Gb which
were then viewable in FDISK. Before running the WD software the drive
appeared as only 32Gb in FDISK.

I know that's not answering your question but anything might help.

"Renta-Geek" wrote in message
...

IBM NetVista
WinME
Maxtor 80G with 8 meg on board RAM
c: (boot) = 20G partition
d: = 30G Partition
e: = 30G Partition

History:
- Old HD crapped out (clunk, clunk, clunck, ssccchhrrrtttt, clunk.......)
- Bought new Drive
- Fdisked / Format (Fat32)
- Fresh Install of WinME using IBM CD
- Boot to WinME -- Sees C: D: and E: without problem.
- I could write to C: D: & E without problems for a few days.

Then BOOM, D: and E: are gone.
Flashed bios with latest version from IBM
re fdisked and formated the drives. (Fat32)
I can now see D: and E: again.

4-5 days later: Boom: same thing.
Take the drive, put it into other machines: Norton, PC-Cillin and Mcafee
scan it
(I fix PC's for a living, I tend to have a little of everything)
Its clean

I wipe it and start from scratch (again).
New WinME install from IBM CD
Fdisk C:E: 20gig/20gig/40gig (fat32)
Good for 4-5 days.
Now, D: and E: are gone AGAIN!!??

Any clues? Hints? Tips?
I can SEE the partitions using fdisk: They show up as NON-DOS partitions.
(when they were clearly fat32 before). Deleting E using fdisk makes D:
into
one huge non-dos partition.

I am at a serious loss.

Thanks Jerry, I will give that a try. A this moment, I am willing to try
anything. grin I even tried to load a virus scan from a disk to see if
perhaps an *OLD* boot sector virus somehow shifted around during the boot
process and thus hid from current AV utitlities.. No go.

Anyhow, I will let you know if this works. Heck, I may even buy you an
X-mas gift if it does. Hehe.

Thanks.

"Jerry" wrote:

Did you try setting up the drive with the utilities from the manufacturer
rather than FDISK from the ME or IBM CD?

When I bought my WD 120Gb drives FDISK wouldn't work correctly till after I
ran theWD software that I downloaded and used to make a boot floppy. The WD
software allowed me to make partitions of 32Gb, 32Gb, 32Gb and 24Gb which
were then viewable in FDISK. Before running the WD software the drive
appeared as only 32Gb in FDISK.

I know that's not answering your question but anything might help.

"Renta-Geek" wrote in message
...

IBM NetVista
WinME
Maxtor 80G with 8 meg on board RAM
c: (boot) = 20G partition
d: = 30G Partition
e: = 30G Partition

History:
- Old HD crapped out (clunk, clunk, clunck, ssccchhrrrtttt, clunk.......)
- Bought new Drive
- Fdisked / Format (Fat32)
- Fresh Install of WinME using IBM CD
- Boot to WinME -- Sees C: D: and E: without problem.
- I could write to C: D: & E without problems for a few days.

Then BOOM, D: and E: are gone.
Flashed bios with latest version from IBM
re fdisked and formated the drives. (Fat32)
I can now see D: and E: again.

4-5 days later: Boom: same thing.
Take the drive, put it into other machines: Norton, PC-Cillin and Mcafee
scan it
(I fix PC's for a living, I tend to have a little of everything)
Its clean

I wipe it and start from scratch (again).
New WinME install from IBM CD
Fdisk C:E: 20gig/20gig/40gig (fat32)
Good for 4-5 days.
Now, D: and E: are gone AGAIN!!??

Any clues? Hints? Tips?
I can SEE the partitions using fdisk: They show up as NON-DOS partitions.
(when they were clearly fat32 before). Deleting E using fdisk makes D:
into
one huge non-dos partition.

I am at a serious loss.

I have used Maxtor IDE drives since switching from RLL and never (had need
to) use their maxblast software. I recently acquired several Netfinity and
300 and other
non-dos/win IBM models. I strongly "suspect" that using an MS version of
fdisk on these drives could trash them. So far all ntfs, most with an hpfs
and a non-dos
partition but one of the hpfs I used my windows fdisk on is now a paper
weight.

"Jerry" wrote:

Did you try setting up the drive with the utilities from the manufacturer
rather than FDISK from the ME or IBM CD?

When I bought my WD 120Gb drives FDISK wouldn't work correctly till after I
ran theWD software that I downloaded and used to make a boot floppy. The WD
software allowed me to make partitions of 32Gb, 32Gb, 32Gb and 24Gb which
were then viewable in FDISK. Before running the WD software the drive
appeared as only 32Gb in FDISK.

I know that's not answering your question but anything might help.

"Renta-Geek" wrote in message
...

IBM NetVista
WinME
Maxtor 80G with 8 meg on board RAM
c: (boot) = 20G partition
d: = 30G Partition
e: = 30G Partition

History:
- Old HD crapped out (clunk, clunk, clunck, ssccchhrrrtttt, clunk.......)
- Bought new Drive
- Fdisked / Format (Fat32)
- Fresh Install of WinME using IBM CD
- Boot to WinME -- Sees C: D: and E: without problem.
- I could write to C: D: & E without problems for a few days.

Then BOOM, D: and E: are gone.
Flashed bios with latest version from IBM
re fdisked and formated the drives. (Fat32)
I can now see D: and E: again.

4-5 days later: Boom: same thing.
Take the drive, put it into other machines: Norton, PC-Cillin and Mcafee
scan it
(I fix PC's for a living, I tend to have a little of everything)
Its clean

I wipe it and start from scratch (again).
New WinME install from IBM CD
Fdisk C:E: 20gig/20gig/40gig (fat32)
Good for 4-5 days.
Now, D: and E: are gone AGAIN!!??

Any clues? Hints? Tips?
I can SEE the partitions using fdisk: They show up as NON-DOS partitions.
(when they were clearly fat32 before). Deleting E using fdisk makes D:
into
one huge non-dos partition.

I am at a serious loss.