// * * * * context of problem * * * *
I have a MAXTOR 6L080J4 Drive, which partition table I think I have
accidentally damaged.

I was in a rush trying to do some software stress testing with some
data in it.

The other previously existing drive on the cable was a 40 Gb MAXTOR
6L040J2 one.

As the OS was booting up, I could see the BIOS showing sometimes the
right info and picking up the drive and some other times showing
garbled info for the "Secondary Slave" drive.

I went to the BIOS to check the drive and noticed it was only showing
it as a 40Gb instead of an 80 Gb one. I noticed it was the RAID slot
and changed the 80Gb drive to the IDE 2 slot with the CD-ROM drive.
and then the BIOS was showing it always fine as a 80 Gb one and
Windows 2000 shows it to me in the explorer window and tells me "the
device is working properly" when I can not reach the data in it

So, apparently the OS destroyed the data or the FAT (instead of
refussing to take the other larger drive) without letting you know!?!)

._ I tried Norton Disk Doctor which tells me:

"Unable to access drive E:"

"The Volume does not contain a recognized file system."

._ if I try the to go "Properties > Tools > Check Now" and check (or
not) both "Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and
attempt recovery of bad sectors" the windows just closes when I click
OK

._ as a test I ran the evaluation version of PC inspector which shows
me all folders and file names just fine.

Since the disk is not making any noises or anything like that, I
don't think the disk has any physical problems, but only "logical"
ones.

// * * * * now the knoppix part * * * *
I booted my box using knoppix and the damaged disc attached
This is what I get from dmesg relating to the disc drive

. . .
HPT372: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:13.0
HPT372: chipset revision 5
HPT372: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
HPT37X: using 33MHz PCI clock
ide2: BM-DMA at 0xe800-0xe807, BIOS settings: hde:pio, hdf:pio
ide3: BM-DMA at 0xe808-0xe80f, BIOS settings: hdg:pio, hdh:pio
hda: SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-408B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdb: TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-6402B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdc: MAXTOR 6L080J4, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hdc: attached ide-disk driver.
hdc: host protected area => 1
hdc: 156355584 sectors (80054 MB) w/1819KiB Cache, CHS=155114/16/63
Partition check:
hdc: hdc1 hdc2 hdc3 hdc4
. . .

then when I ran gpart, I got (same thing for all 4 partitions):

root@ttyp2[knoppix] # gpart /dev/hdc
Primary partition(1)
type: 000(0x00)(unused)
size: 0mb #s(0) s(0-0)
chs: (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)d (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)r

// __
I think all I have to do is let gpart find the partition and rewrite it to the disc.

I don't want to be 'trying' things in a way that could further damage the disc's data.

WHat is it I am not doing right?

SHould I use a machine with a plain IDE (without RAID) to use gpart?

How do you do while fixing partitions?

Let me know if you need more info?