LM>Now the really bad news.  My 13 yr old was installing some game from a
LM>CD sampler he got in a magazine and somehow it wiped out the partition
LM>info on my C: drive.  Wouldn't boot and FDISK said there was no
LM>partition info.  A real aw sh_t.  Had to re-fdisk and reformat.  Of
LM>course, I don't have a current back up on anything but a few data files.
LM>AAAaaaaaaarrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhh.

Did you try FDISK /MBR before going through all of that?
Your not having a good backup teaches you today's lesson...
Read the below Faq Lee, and let me know what you think of it.

Dos Fdisk Faq (Version 1)

Command-line options

FDISK is normally started without commandline options, however there
are two important command line options to use when troubleshooting or
repairing a corrupted disk.

FDISK /STATUS
Prints a screen just like using option 4 of fdisk "Partition
information", but includes extended partition information.  This
is the safe use of Fdisk as it does not change anything. However it
informs you of the condition of the partitions on your hard drives if
they are intact.

FDISK /MBR
Causes Fdisk to write the master boot record to the hard disk without
altering the partition table information.

If you have a Boot Sector Virus, boot from a known "Clean" floppy disk
set for read only and has the System files and FDISK on it - IE: your
"Disaster Recovery Disk" and run FDISK /MBR.  This should remove most
boot sector viruses, and may be useful in removing unwanted Disk Manager
installations.

For further info on a disaster recovery disk, please ask for my
Mr Fixit Disk Faq, which is currently in process. (FIXDISK.TXT.)

[Additional info]

One of the FDISK functions, updating the Master Boot Record (MBR),
does not appear on any of the normal FDISK menus,  Nor is it properly
documented.  The Master Boot Record is located at the beginning of
your primary fixed disk, Cylinder 0, Head 0, Sector 1, if this sector
is damaged the drive may or may not remain accessable but it will
definitely not be bootable.

The MBR is composed of two parts -- the master boot code and the
partition table.  The master boot code is a short program that
determines which operating system will start the computer, then
transfers control to that operating system.  The partition table
contains information about the partitions located on the fixed disk.
The MBR also is supposed to do a few other "small" things such as
initialize the OS's FAT pointer and such...

FDISK
If you start Fdisk in it's normal interactive mode.

It will have 5 basic options available on it's opening screen if you
have more than one HD.  Option 5 is the change to second disk option.
Be careful and check that you have switched to the correct disk before
you do anything irreversible.

Otherwise the first 4 are relatively self-explanatory if you realize
that you need to have a primary partition that has also has been marked
active to boot from and any extra logical partitions/drives will have 
to be extended partitions.  Hitting escape to go to the previous menu
may be an unusual legacy of previous Dos versions but works well enough.

(C) Copyright MXMV by M. Zeleski, Unrestricted Nonprofit or Personal
    Usage is allowed. All for profit usage is still reserved.
    
    Please feel free to copy this Faq and distribute it to any BBS or 
    IP that does not charge for connect time.  Some Faq's are dated or 
    have version numbers, a new version date/number does *NOT* indicate
    any changes.  Please attribute quotes if possible.  Please keep the 
    entire text above intact until the word "reserved" if saving for an 
    upload. Appropriate comments and corrections are welcome. 23-OCT-95.
-!-
 * OLXWin 1.00a * A brute kills for pleasure. A fool kills from hate. RAH

-!- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 
 ! Origin: Father & Son*610-439-1509*Whitehall Pa (BEAR-Hub)  (1:2607/112.0)