can Windows98 SE handle all of my drives?

[flipdon]

i recently partitioned my 2 hard drives in preparation for a dual-boot (Win98 SE and Win2000). But now when i boot up, i can only see up to drive G: in 'My Computer', which is only my first hard drive. But it does see my Swap partition ( D: ), which is my primary partition on my 2nd HD. I can't see any of the other partitions on my 2nd hard drive....although i can manually go to Explorer and type in H: and I:, which works.

Here's how my hard drives are partitioned:

IBM Deskstar 45 GB
C: 6 GB FAT32 [Primary]
(right now houses my current Win98 SE & programs, but after re-installing Win98 SE, i'll split it 3 GB FAT32 and 3 GB NTFS for Win2k)
E: 8 GB FAT32 for Programs [Logical]
F: 8 GB FAT32 for Games [Logical]
10 GB NTFS for DVD ripping [Logical] (not recognized in Win98)
G: 11 GB FAT32 for DiVx movies [Logical]

Maxtor Diamondmax 60 Plus 60 GB
D: 500 MB FAT16 for Swap [Primary]
H: 38 GB FAT32 for mp3, music videos, etc [Logical]
I: 20 GB FAT32 for Anime [Logical]

There's no data on drives E: F: and G: as of yet.

Then I have a DVD, CD-RW, and Zip250 connected to my Promise ATA-100 PCI controller card...whenever i try to connect my CD drives i can't boot up (but that's another problem...one step at a time).

Is there some setting that doesn't allow Windows to see past drive G? that i can hopefully change?? Im hoping when i start off with a fresh installation, this problem may disappear, but i would like to understand what's going on in case it doesn't go away.

System Info: [Dell Dimension 4100] PIII 733, Intel i815, 384 MB PC133 RAM, 64 MB DDR GeForce 2 GTS, SB Live! Value, 3com 10/100 NIC, USR 56K PCI modem, NEC DVD drive, Teac 12x10x32x CD-RW, Zip250 IDE, Promise ATA-100 controller.

Any input is appreciated....hope i gave enough info.

 

[igiveup]

Well, I remember something about FAT32 not being able to handle datasets past 40 GB at all. Maybe your computer is choking on drive H:\.

 

[flipdon]

i just did a lil' rearranging, i.e. connected my primary Hard Drive to IDE 1, and my 2 CD drives to IDE 2.

Now, 'My Computer' once again only shows up to drive G:, this time showing the 4 non-NTFS partitions C:-F: but also my burner G:. In my Device Manager, BOTH my burner and DVD show up, and i can access the DVD manually by typing H: in explorer.

Why does it always stop at G???

igiveup - Before going partition-crazy, my windows partition was the whole 45GB drive and that worked fine. Is that what you meant?

EDIT: I finally got everything connected and booted up properly, and it still can't get past drive G:....but i can manually get into each drive still ( now up to L: )

 

[AndyHui]

Go into TweakUI and make sure that the drive letters are not hidden. Sometimes they are even without you setting them to be. Windows (and DOS) will handle drive letters all the way to Z.

 

[flipdon]

DOH!!

AndyHui, u were right on the mark! Thanks so much.
That's why i come to Anandtech for all my questions.


See you all in the next INSTALLment of my computer...

...damn, that was bad.