Drive C does not contain a valid FAT

I'm running Windows 2000 under FAT32. I'm getting a message that drive C does not contain a valid FAT. This usually means I cannot recover any way but by re-FDisking and starting over. I have two questions:

1. I have Norton Utilities here. Is there something in NU that will allow me to recover from this kind of crash if I run it in the future? In other words, what is there in Norton Utilities that will back up the FAT on all partitions, for use in a subsequent recovery?

2. Is there anything anyone knows of that will help me recover from this crash without starting over again? I have all the user-created data backed up; but, reinstalling everything from scratch is a time-consuming job I would like to avoid.

 

If you are not able to boot into DOS or Windows, then I think you probably lost your hard drive, and not just the FAT. Check Drive Savers if you need that data back. They have ways to recovery data, for a price...

Otherwise, I would start over and use NTFS. NTFS has some better performance and recovery options than FAT did.

 

Thanks for the suggestion; but, DriveSavers is out of the question as the data is all backed up.

I'm looking for tools that will enable me to back up partition tables, master boot records, etc. for my customers in anticipation of such a problem and I need tools to recover partition tables and master boot records in situations where backups have not ever been made.

 

Thanks for the suggestion; but, your link goes to a blank page.