->         Hello Matt ! 

->  MM> Oh yes, Windows DOES do that!  :-((  If it fails to see the drive for
->  MM> any reason, it believes there is no data to be careful of and starts
->  MM> the installation with FDISK.

->         Windows does FDISK ?

The OEM CD does.

->  MM> If I read all of this correctly, Wayne's system now no longer 'sees'
->  MM> the drive at all.  If this is true, he will most likely have to put it
->  MM> on a newer system first that will 'see' the drive just to be able to
->  MM> zero the MBR. 

->         Wayne has some hope for his HD as he said that he is keeping
->   it to install it as slave on another system. Then he would be able
->   to do an FDISK on his own and then format the HD again. That would
->   redo the MBR.

I was thinking Roy's advice might have some value in the 
command line syntax he provided but on rethinking it 
if fdisk /dev/hde doesn't see the drive his zeroing syntax
won't see it either :-(

What Jim Holsonback fails to see is there's no inherent HARDWARE
ATAPI support for the CD drive in the Promise Ultra66 card.

Told he's looking at a system running Windows on the same type promise
card is meaningless as it's right there in the documentation
that Windows and Promise drivers are compatable
doesn't help in the least if your software is on a CD.
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5