I have this quite an odd problem. My two HDDs are 'loosing' their FAT tables for some mysterious reason. I have once formatted both HDDs and partitioned them. After a while when I try in DOS to get dir and I get that it can't find any FAT tables and so no overrall free space and other info... This thing has also manifested on W2k as in sudden boots of the system and system hangs. System has for awhile behaved good. My MB is Abit KT7A and HDDs are IBM IC35L060AVER07 and Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X 6L060J3.
I have few hypothesis of my own. I recently installed a new heat sink on the CPU and in the process hit one of the coils beside the CPU. I checked the coil and there was no visible damage on it. Could that influence the HDDs? I can understand the sudden boots resulting because of that but not the FAT problems. Also I have checked both HDDs with manufacturers own maintenance programs and both have pass them without a hinch so it's unlikely that the problem is on the HDDs.
So any suggestions and feedback will be preciated. Thanks in advance.

Don't know how much truth is in this, guys, help me out here.

I have heard that since the the drive markings (magnetic) are done when u partition your hard drives, since they are "magnetic" they tend to lose their markings once in a while.

This is ever so true for the Compaqs, I just went 5 months on my Presario 5008, it will start giving you fat errors. Once repartition is done, it is fine.

I have heard techs say once a year is good enough, but I find with Compaqs it is a little more than that. Also it performs better if you wipe it x 2 a year, I average about 3.

Think the hard drives are fine, u just need to repartition the drives.

And this is why I do regular backup with Norton Ghost. I make it easier, once I have reformated and partitioned my drive, I ghost out the drive, then it only takes me 10 minutes to put the image back on my hard drive, not hours.

Hope this helps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I have also used Norton Ghost to backup my OS drive only but the others have so much stuff in them it wouldn't be practical to ghost them also. I checked yesterday and the FAT tables are again 'gone'. btw, is FAT tables created when you partition or format a drive?

Also keep magnetic items such as speakers away from the hard drives. Many people will set speakers directly on top of hard drive or right side by side, this is a no no!!!!!!!

Just a tip.

indead, keep speakers and amplifiers away from your computer. Those tiny computerspeakers are usually shielded against the magnetism, but an amplifier and big speakers can cause this behavier, thrust me!

Johan