I've recently installed Windows ME as an upgrade to Windows98, and my friends warned me that there's a bug in the os...they said that when the system crashes while writing to a hard-drive, it messes up the fat to the specific harddrive, which can be recovered, but is a very painstaking thing to do. Well, this just happened to me. This afternoon the system crashed, and now i can't reach the folders on my D: partition, which are full of VERY IMPORTANT stuff. Can anyone please help me on how to restore the directory structure? I am RAGING mad at Microsoft...

Never heard of this bug!!! So, you boot ok on C:?? When you try to access D: what happens?

Is this a Compaq., if so you are better off doing a Clean Install of Windows Me and can be done with the Retail version of Windows Me Upgrade disk, you just need Compaqs proof of w98 or if you have a w95 Companion, or there are ways of getting info from you D drive to do a clean install....I know you said you can't access your D drive, but there are ways of doing a Restore of your w98 (with the recovery disk from Compaq.) Plus you should have also made a floppy Recovery thru Compaq's restore feature? This is if you have a Compaq, post for more info

You CAN most likely recover your files. It's easiest if you haven't done anything to the partition since the problem began. I had that happen with a Win98 crash. First try scan disk. It may be able to rebuild the directory structure. For instance, it may give all the first directories numbered names while the branches below that may retain their original names. That's the good news and a good scenario. The bad news is that it can be worse. You'd still probably be able to get the files, but the software to do so is madly expensive (I think). Over $120US on software from Ontrack was spent to get my sister's digital pictures back. It worked great, but it wasn't cheap. Oh, and that problem was on a Compaq too! A 400Mhz AMD K6-2 Machine with a 10GB hard drive divided into two partitions, C: with about 7GB and D: with about 3GB. C was the one that was messed up with this computer though.

You should back up your data to removable disk before attempting an upgrade. The bug you speak of is a new one on me. never heard of it. I beat the heck out of windows me on one system and yank the plug, watch it crash all the time and my extended partition has never been damaged. Where is windows installed? C:\? Are you using any 3rd party partitioning software? Is D:\ a seperate HD or part of a single HD? If its a seperate HD.... Can you see D:\ in explorer? Are you sure this drive hasnt failed?

Never upgrade. Always use complete versions. Upgading microsoft programs always sux.

You can use a Windows Me Upgrade and works fine if you do a clean install of it.