Can Partition Magic magically put my partitions back???

[TheOnly1RealQTzQ]

Below is my previous unresponded to question.
I think I have an idea. When I boot with my WinMe startup disk, she tells me she doesnt see any partitions. Ive been told partitions can disappear for no particular reason (myyy reasoning would be a bad HD (mine being 3 mths old)). SO, if this is true that my partitions have disappeared, can they be "found" using a program like Partition Magic? And if not, might this be something I could send the HD back to the manufacturer for warranty.


****Previous unresponded to question****

I have WinME on a 475mhz AMD processor.
I installed a program but didnt reboot when it asked. I burned a cd, went online and did a few other things (no, I didnt download anything). When I was finished, I decided to give her a rest and turn her off. When I returned a few hours later to reboot, I get to the desktop themes wallpaper and then I get MPREXE caused an exception 03h in module USER32.DLL at 016f:bff45d96. I click close (the only thing I can do). Then I get the same message for SCANDSKW, STATEMGR, MSTASK, RUNDLL.32 and MMTASK (but MMTASK is in module WINMM.DLL) (all the same message, but some with diff memory addresses).
I cant get to safe mode because I get some exception messages there also.
Once I click close on all the messages, all I get is my desktop themes wallpaper (safemode and regular boot).
When I boot fm my startup disk, it says my c drive doesnt have a valid FAT or FAT32 partition (it did before I turned it off). And all my files and directories arent showing!!!!! Not to mention, my other drive letters.
I went here

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q182/1/42.asp

; but I have no systems directory showing in c
I have a feeling I should have restarted the machine when it prompted me after installing the program.
Can someone please shed some light? Or better yet, tell me how to FIX the problem.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks [sig]<p>Q<br><a href=mailto:Only1TrueQ@yahoo.com>Only1TrueQ@yahoo.com</a><br><a href=

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[bdux]

what operating system was on the P.C originally . Windows 95 b uses a strange file system that other operating systems will not see. Partion magic won't see it either . Check with Fdisk if it can see the partions by booting up from a boot disk . Fdisk may be on the win cd . Partion magic has an option to hide partions but you have not set this option . If the data is able to be lost on the hard drive you could delete the partion in fdisk then recreate them and then format the hard drive and start again . check the bios settings for the hard drive are correct . The ide cable may have come off the hard drive so if the P.C is under warranty it would be better to take the machine back to the place of purchase. If you only have the hard drive under warranty only then check the cabling is ok. [sig][/sig]

 

[Alt255]

You don't appear to have bad partitions. You seem to have a bad file allocation table on your boot drive. Boot to your startup floppy and run scandisk from there. The fact that Windows &quot;tries&quot; to start indicates that the problem isn't all that bad.

You may have lost some folders and files. If you believe that you have lost anything you can't live without, do not run scandisk or otherwise mess with your computer until you can buy a copy of Lost and Found (another Power Quest product). You will need a second hard drive with at least as many free bytes as the one you wish to recover, and it must be of the same FAT type. Let L&F run until it has recovered your files. Repartition and format the original drive, reinstall the OS and software and then restore your priceless files from the recovery drive.

You might not need to go that far unless you feel you have lost irreplaceable data. Then, by all means....
[sig]<p> <br><a href=mailto: > </a><br><a href=

http://www.vorpalcom.com>A

plain black box</a><br><i>"I sure hope I'm retired when it comes time to fix all the the Year-2000 problems in our systems!"</i><br>
<b>Edward Yourdon, <u>Time Bomb 2000</u></b>[/sig]

 

[TheOnly1RealQTzQ]

BDUX: Originally I had Win 95B and overlaid it with Win 98 and now WinME.
I put Win Me on her the day after it came out and have had no problems whatsoever with her. That is until now. And even now I hesitate to &quot;put it on&quot; Win Me (eeeeven tho I hear some of the horror stories about it).
I will try the FDISK thing. I also have another semi reliable older machine Im gonna try and use to diagnos her if all else fails.
My BIOS is still correct for the drive.
Andddd I put this machine together piece by piece - fm cover to cable - so theres no one to take it back to BUT MEEE.
And Alt: Im feeling youre on the same track Im on. If it can see the windows desktop themes wallpaper, my thinking is theres just something &quot;missing&quot;. Ive run scandisk already. It claims to not see any problems.
Since my HD is relatively new, whats on it isnt reeeally irreplacable. (I was sharing over 100 MP3 files on Napster and 5 or 6 web pages I was working on ) So if I never really &quot;fix&quot; the problem, I dont haaave a problem reinstalling - but Id like to have it settled in my head what really happened.
I SHALL RETURN!!!!
[sig]<p>Q<br><a href=mailto:Only1TrueQ@yahoo.com>Only1TrueQ@yahoo.com</a><br><a href=

http://www.geocities.com/only1trueq>Q's

Page</a><br>Im learnin as I go along....[/sig]