Help! I don't know what happened, but when I attempted format my E: partition, it overwrote my C: partition's FAT instead! I am using Ontrack Disk Manager so my P166 can see greater than 8.4 GB if this information is of any importance. My computer has: Pentium 166 32 MB RAM 20.5 GB Quantum Fireball LM Windows NT4 SP6a Windows ME It has an old BIOS and only supports 8.4 GB. So I use Ontrack Disk Manager... (I think that's what it's called) I'll describe my file system: C: Primary partition: 500 MB FAT16 - Used to load bootmanager to boot NT4 and 95b, was a drive for swap files and temporary files. D: 1024 MB FAT16 - NT4 + SP6a is installed here - i would like to keep this drive intact so I can boot back up to windows without requiring a reinstall. E: 1024 MB FAT16 - ME was installed here, but is still here after formatting! - this drive is of no importance to me anymore F: 4096 MB NTFS - Program files, source code etc - i do not recollect how much space was free G: 4096 MB NTFS - Empty (Was going to reformat as FAT32) H: 4096 MB NTFS - MP3's and what not and various important data files - around 600 mb free I: 4732 MB FAT32 - Very important files, - around 3 gigs free My partition table and master boot record are both invalid (as reported by PowerQuest Lost & Found v1.06). When I run FDISK from ME, 95B or from a Linux install disk, I see my proper partition layout as I described above. HOWEVER! When I use a ME or 95B boot disk and type DIR, or run Norton Disk Doctor, my C: drive is reported to be 1024 MB.. I am assuming the format to E: wrote the new FAT to my C: drive for some unexplained reason. My E: drive is still there... all the files and everything, but when I try to access a few files i get the error "PCI: Bad IRQ Holder"... I've downloaded the trial NTFS4DOS and checked out my NTFS partitions, and they appear to be intact... But I examined one random text file and it appeared to be slightly corrupt. I have also run Norton Disk Doctor and attempted to recover my FAT on C: but with no luck. It still reported it as a 1 gig drive, so I undid changes. Now that you know (hopefully) all the information you need to, how do I 'fix' my C: partition so that it reports the REAL size? I do not want to lose any more data in the restoring process either. =( Thanks in advance for your help, (Thank goodness I have a spare 486) Brian

BAH! I took a look at the file, and "PCI: Bad IRQ Holder" was actually the contents of the file! Heh. OK, so that rules out a possible problem.

Ok.. I got a Partition Magic 5 rescue disk, and it corrected my overlap. Phewph. Now I am unable to restore my NT4 Install... I'll try again, but when it attempted to restore my NTLDR and whatnot, it failed (even from the CD) for some reason. If someone can tell me why format acted so weirdly, please speak up :)

DEAR BRIAN, ONE WORD....FORMAT INCORRECT FORMATTING COULD LEAD TO ACCIDENTAL DELETIONS OF LARGE PORTIONS OF THE HARD DISK. USING A UTILITY TO IDENTIFY THE SIZE OF YOUR HARD DRIVE IS NOT NECESSARY. IT ISNT THE PROCESSOR THAT HAS TO RECOGNIZE THE SIZE, BUT THE PRIMARY DOS THAT HAS TO. TRY SWITCHING YOUR COMPUTER TO MSDOS 6.1 OR HIGHER. AFTER THAT IS DONE, TRY USING YOUR WIN98 DISK AS A BOOTUP IF YOU HAVE REALTIME CDROM DRIVERS LOADED ON DOS. IT WILL PROMPT TO RESTORE YOUR WIN98 FAT 32 CONFIGURATION WITHOUT DAMAGING YOUR OTHER PARTITIONS. NOW ...ABOUT THE PARTITIONS, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? DAMN IS ALL I HAVE TO SAY. CONSIDER GETTING AN EXTERNAL STORAGE DEVICE TO FREE UP SOME SPACE AND NOT TO HAVE THE WORRY OF ACCIDENTALL DELETING A PARTITION.