Maxtor 60GB Hard Drive Problem

Repartitioning and upgrading to XP are the two tasks that require a complete backup of the PC, before they are performed.
But now to the problem, The data is not lost, It is still written on the Hard Disk. The File Allocation Table for the second partition should also still be there.
The problem is that the partition table is corrupt.
A sub part of the problem is that you can restore the files, so an expensive data recovery program is out of consideration.

A necessary first check, that is probably not the problem, but will save a lot of time if it is.
Check the BIOS to make sure that the setting has not changed, or is not corrupt.
If it has changed, or is corrupt, change the battery on the motherboard, correct setting, and rerun Partition Magic.
Now to the much more likely solution. Download the program Virtual Lab Data Recovery by BinaryBiz from cnet.com .
(Cnet is the parent of Tech Republic.)
This is a free download, and the only one I can think of, right off, that may work, and meets the cost criteria.
Regards, Chris

Boot the system to dos and go into fdisk. View the partition information and see what is going on. You will see the current partition information.

If you are not concerned about recovering the information you can do the following.

In fdisk delete any dos or non dos partitions.

Reboot back into dos and at the a:\ prompt type fdisk /mbr
This will rebuild the master boot record.

Reboot and enter fdisk, it should prompt with a full screen of information that cooks down to do you want to enable large partitions. Tell it yes.

You should be able to create a full drive partition now.

If you still can't create the full 60. You might need to recertify the drive. Maxtor has software that will check the drive and allow you to perform a low level format. Get it here:
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Copy and paste, no spaces.

Good Luck Lee