I have a Sony Vaio 888MHz computer, with WindowsME. I have 1 hard drive, logically partitioned into C and D drives. I recently tried to install Windows NT so I can multiboot. But Windows NT corrupted my FAT32 partiton table. When I try to boot my computer, the error message is "missing operating system". All my files and programs are still there, I'm sure of that, but there is no way to acces them. Any suggestions? I also have a CD R/W drive which I intend to use to retrieve now-inaccessible files. How do I do that? After this diaster, I can't access CD R/W drive anymore. How can I make it visible so I can download all the files and restore windowsME? Does anyone have the partition table for WindowsME so I can change it? Is it feasible to do this manually? Anyone with suggestions are greatly appriated.

Have you tried booting with a Windows ME boot disk and dyping FIX MBR at the command prompt? Chances are that your master boot record got deleted or coruppted some how. This will more than likely fix your problem, but if it does not, please repost.

The advanced answer: see webpage http://www.datarescue.com/laboratory/partition2.htm The easy answer: But first of all, never trust FDISK when partition information is wrong or non-existent, but try this anyway. Boot from a Win9x floppy and run the command fdisk /mbr

NTFS can't reside before your c:/ because of dos. burn all your programs onto disk and reformat the whole drive install windows me onto the first primary partition(FAT32). next make another primary partition(NTFS). Windows ME wont even see the NTFS partition, however when you install NT the boot file has to be in the first 2 gigs of your disk. I suggest moving to the more stable windows 2000 (built on NT), because you can install it past the 2 gig mark. Make a Extended Partition and split it into as many logical "volumes" as you would like. The beauty of having another NTFS logical volume is that the ME wont even see it, if that's what your looking for. Also the NTFS is a much more organized File System. Windows 2000 will recognize the FAT and NTFS. Good Luck.

to get back into me boot with a win-me startup disk and at the a; type sys c: and press enter it will respond system transferred. take out floppy and reboot if windows-me is still there it will now boot into windows.

Thanks for all your help. I just have a few questions. windowME still doesn't work. Message "Missing OS" still remains. When I boot from windowME startup disk, it gives a list of options: start with CD-ROM support, start w/o CD-ROM, and minimal boot. When I choose start with CD_ROM support, it creates 2 CD-ROM drives, but none of which I can transfer files into (means I can't access my CD_RW drive). How do I access my CD-RW drive? Any suggestions? I tried FIX MBR(as in M1) or SYS c:(as in M4) , it says there is no such command. Where do I enter this command, at a: or c:, where exactly? When I use WindowME startup disk, the only physical drive that it accessed successfully is my original D drive. My original C drive is not there. When I use "easy recover" program, it can access my C drive, but my original D drive is replaced by their virtual D drive. How do I accesse them at the same time? Anyone with suggestions are greatly appriated. Please be as specific as possible. Thanks.

Active Partition Recovery is compact DOS software tool that helps to recover deleted partition and logical disks on hard drives. Can backup MBR (Master Boot Record), partitition table, boot sectors. Restores MBR from backup if partition structure was damaged by virus or inadvertantly deleted. Creates disk image. Runs from startup disk.