h/d question - software related

is there a program that will let me reformat and partition my h/d on my computer? i have a maxtor h/d that i bought a few months ago, and when i 1st got it i used the software to set it up, and then install my os. just recently i had problems with my os, and i had to try and reinstall it. well, after everything was said and done, i was not able to reinstall my original software. my computer is a gateway, and it originally had windows me on it. i couldn't format my disk from dos mode or anything. i can't use the maxtor disk, because it won't work with the os on there already, i can't use it to boot from because i keep getting an error. i have e-mailed maxtor already, but i'm kinda stumped. i posted this on the hard drive board, but have gotten no responses there. it's not really a h/d problem, because it's working, i can load the os, etc., but i'd really like to start from scratch. ok, i wound up loading my os from my laptop (which is dead), and it's a gateway as well. i loaded the os this weekend, and had a problem and decided to reinstall it, but make a partition for backup. i did it wrong, as the os was loaded on the "g" drive, and the smaller partition was on the "c" drive. i reloaded again yesterday, and the smaller partition (15 gig) was gone. it wasn't there in windows explorer. it's a maxtor 60 gbyte h/d, and it said it was 45 gbyte.

the 2nd problem to all of this, is that i can't read my 2nd drive (which i could with windows me). but, i might have found an answer to that problem? i'll wait and see when i reload windows (again) right now. - thx, sos

http://maxtor.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/...F9sdmwxPTgzJnBfY2F0X2x2bDI9JnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li= <-- link from maxtor site.

6Y060L0 <-- this is my h/d model.

 

anyone have any ideas about the 2nd h/d problem? i followed that link, but couldn't figure it out. - sos