Dual boot Win98SE and XP: FAT32 Partition not accessible under 98

[strollingf]

Hi there.

 

I'd like to setup a dual boot PC with windows 98SE and XP. Therefore the 160GB hard disk was partitioned like that:

• 30GB FAT32 for WIn98SE (C:)
• 60GB FAT32 for WinXP (D:)
• 50GB FAT32 for shared Data and stuff that should not get lost when re-installing one of the two OS (E:).

First I installed Win98SE, which worked fine at first with access to all of the other partitions as well.

Then I went on an put WinXP on the second partition - during that installation the setup also installed a boot manager which lets me choose between 98 and XP on startup.

But unfortunately I can not access the XP and shared-data-partition under 98 anymore. Why is that? All partitions are STILL Fat32, not NTFS. What can I do to get access to drive E: back?

 

Thanks a lot.

[jaclaz]

Hmmm.

Are they all Primary? (or second and third are Logical Volumes inside Extended?)

Are you sure-sure that the XP (and the other) partition were not converted to NTFS?

 

The "third" partition may have issues in 9x because it crosses the 128 Gb (LBA48) border.

 

As a "rule of the thumb" DOS (and conversely Windows 9x) *like* anyway a single primary partition and all the rest inside Extended (more or less if FDISK doesn't allow you to create something, it is because that something is not guaranteed to be working, but this should not be your case ).

 

From the XP (which I presume can access all three volumes) do run Hdhacker:

http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/

you want to make a copy of first sector of the \\.\PhysicalDrive (the MBR)  and a copy of the fisrst sector of the three volumes/partitions (aka \\.\LogicalDrive), then compress the four files into a .zip archive and attach it to your next post.

 

jaclaz