While attempting to upgrade from 98 to XP onto my hard drive I encountered bad sector errors that wouldn't allow for the completion of the installation. Using fdisk and format wouldn't repair the problem so I decided to use a low level format utility. I then revieved an error during the LLF. Now my bios will not recognize the hard drive and if I try to run fdisk it says "no fixed disk present." I also tried to run the LLF utility again and it does not recognize any drives. Is this thing toast or is there something I can do to fix it?

What's the model # of the drive and what was the name of the LLF you used? Most actual LLFs (in contrast to a zero fill utility) were designed for older drives. Running them on newer drives can have questionable results.

its an IBM Deskstar 20.4 Gig Model: IC35L020AVER07-0 I used Maxtor LLF Utility (maxllf.exe)

go to the IBM page, THEY ARE THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT and look for diagnostics and utilities for their drives.

Maxllf is a good one. I just used it to LLF a 3.2 gig quantum because the bios wasn't seeing it as LBA. But I wouldn't want to use it on a drive that large. You should have tried a zero fill first. There's an IBM version of diskmanager, DM_2000.EXE, that probably will have an LLF included. If you google the file name you should be able to find a download site. It's a 7 meg file. If possible, run that on the drive. If the drive is already shot it may not work but you should give it a try. I uploaded a generic version of diskmanager here. You could try it too. You can still use 'drivers' and 'all' for user and password. But there's a good chance the drive is shot.

http://www.killdisk.com This will run from a system booted into DOS, a W98SE boot floppy is ideal for booting. Though if the HDD has bad sectors it is probably toast anyway....................

"IBM Deskstar" Sometimes called a Deathstar. Ditch it I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.