I stated this same problem a couple of days back, but none of the suggestions worked. I also posted in other forums and asked in several computer chat rooms, as well as looking on many websites. And none of the suggestions have worked. This seems to be a quite challenging problem, but I trust in you guys and I HOPE that someone might get it right. Ok, I will make this very specific and detailed so that I can get help effectively. I had a fully working computer with win98se installed. I decided I wanted to install win2k and win98 on same hard drive. So I went ahead and formatted following these steps: 1. Format hard drive 2. I Realized hard drive had to be partitioned first, and then formatted, so at this stage I deleted the partition I had (which was only 1), and I created 2 partitions (one 15 gig which i made active, the other 10 gig .. my drive is 25 gig), and then computer prompt me to restart so that I can format these just-created partitions. 3. I restart Computer, and at this stage I should have started formatting. But instead, the computer does not see my hard drive. I CANNOT do anything dealing with c:drive. I just get an error that it cannot access it. 4. I have tried "fdisk" at the A:\prompt, and I get asked of the FAT32 stuff, i say Yes, and instead of showing me the menu, it just takes me back to the A:prompt. I also tried "fdisk /mbr" and it tells me "no current fixed disks", and it doesnt do anything, and if i do fdisk again, still nothing. I have tried formatting again, but it wont let me because it says it cant format it (cuz it doesnt see it??). 5. I thought of doing a low level format to my hard drive. So I went to my hard drive manufacturer's web site where they SHOULD have a utility to do this. But they Dont. My hard drive is a Fujitsu Model MPE3273AT, 27gig in size. So next thing I tried is "writing zeroes to the harddrive", which I found on this same forum: http://computing.net/windows95/wwwboard/forum/19137.html I thought this would do it, but NOPE, still, same thing, cannot do anything with hard drive, all I can access is A drive and Cd drive. 6. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I dont think there is a way I screwed up the hard drive, as I didnt do anything physically to it ... all i did was: format >> create 2 partitions, and it just stopped working. I know that I must have done something stupid, or I set active the wrong partition and maybe that is why pc cant see hard drive. Please, someone help me, I am going nuts by now. Is it really time to go out and buy a new hard drive ?? :0( P.S. I have read these and many other websites and I have done all the basic stuff (going into bios >> auto-detecting hard drive, manually inputing the drive values (cylinders, heads, sectors, etc.), and all those other things. I disconnected hard drive from motherboard, took out Jumpers, put them back in, etc., none of that has worked either. Sincerely, A guy going crazy in the next few hours

one way that I know of that may help you at this point go to maxtor.com and download maxblast-plus make sure its plus after downloading itstall it on a floppy disk boot up with the disk and see if it will do the job for you if there any screw up partitions it will correct it ( I know alot of people will say its for maxtors drive only I've used on Conners,seagate,western and maxtors drives and it work great) but havenot use it on your type but will if I ever get one.but keep in mind this will only work if everthing else is correct if you try it let people know they may need help like this one day (be sure to understand what the program is asking you to do )

Just a thought, do you have your primiry hdd set to auto in bios ?

Had the same problem!!! When your puter first boots and detects the HDD is it being detected??? Had aan epox 8K7A turned out 2 B a bios chip that wasn't completely seated, pushed in hard around the edges of this little sucker and heard a snapping sound which turned out to be the bios chip seating in its socket, no problems after that....

ZVT, do you NOT use punctuation to make it easier for everyone to follow your thoughts? Just curious, is all... OK, you've done all the basic stuff. The BIOS DOES see the drive, yes? After the system finishes with the POST and memory tests, you should get a small splash screen that has internal parts listed. Is the drive actually listed, and at the right size? It sounds like there may be a connection problem. You said you checked everything out, but WERE there any loose connections? If the ribbon cable wasn't set all the way in and tight, it's possible the controller has been toasted. Try the drive in another system. If you've got the same problems there, it's the drive. If the drive works fine in another system, it's your mainboard (sorry). Go to the WinDrivers Hard Drive Center, and click Fujitsu. There are some links that may help you. If the drive is less than a year old, they should also replace it for free. Be warned, I had trouble dealing with them as they ONLY ship UPS, and after I sent them two hard drives for replacement, they wouldn't send them back because I only had a USPS mailing address (I lived physically outside of the US). HTH, Chase

sorry about my grammer chase but everyone as their weak points

ZVT ... Maxblast plus will not work unless you have a Maxtor drive on the system.