I reinstalled Win98 on a partitioned hard drive some months ago. Then, more recently (about two to three months ago), I decided that I didn't need that 2 GB partition that wasn't being used, so I decided to merge the two partitions so Win98 could use the whole 10 GB drive.
I used Partition Magic 5.x to "merge" the partitions. At the time, I recall PM telling me something to the effect that the merged partition would appear as a folder in my other partition. Now, my computer has one physical hard drive and two CD drives. In other words, before I merged I had a C:, a D:, and an E:. PM asked me to name the folder to contain the merged partition. I did so.
After merging, I had folder by that name on C: which was completely empty. The computer indicated that C: was now a full 10 GB, so I deleted the empty folder. I feel that I didn't do anything wrong there.
BUT, my computer now has drives C:, D:, E:, and F:. My CD-ROM and DVD-ROM are drives E: and F:, the hard drive is of course C:, and D: is just an empty entity. It identifies itself with a CD drive icon in Windows Explorer, but nothing's ever there.
SYMPTOMS:
Now my real problem is one of mild to moderate annoyance. Anytime I do anything that requires file browsing -- i.e. using Windows Explorer or using, for instance, the "browse" feature while trying to save a file in any application -- the computer locks up for 10-20 seconds, as if confused. I've also noticed that when I try to directly type a URL into MS Internet Explorer, it freezes for about that length of time as well. This does not ALWAYS happen, but I'd say it happens 80% of the time. It especially seems to happen recently after a reboot. For instance, the first few times I open Windows Explorer after a reboot. I've actually taken to just leaving Win Explorer open all the time to avoid this minor lockup.
Anyway, it's just getting to be a pain. I'm wondering if I should maybe go into my BIOS and see if there is a drive identified as D: and try to get rid of it, naming the others D: and E: as they should be. But then would I have to map drives?
Any ideas? Where, oh where, did I go wrong?
Thx,
ABS
I used Partition Magic 5.x to "merge" the partitions. At the time, I recall PM telling me something to the effect that the merged partition would appear as a folder in my other partition. Now, my computer has one physical hard drive and two CD drives. In other words, before I merged I had a C:, a D:, and an E:. PM asked me to name the folder to contain the merged partition. I did so.
After merging, I had folder by that name on C: which was completely empty. The computer indicated that C: was now a full 10 GB, so I deleted the empty folder. I feel that I didn't do anything wrong there.
BUT, my computer now has drives C:, D:, E:, and F:. My CD-ROM and DVD-ROM are drives E: and F:, the hard drive is of course C:, and D: is just an empty entity. It identifies itself with a CD drive icon in Windows Explorer, but nothing's ever there.
SYMPTOMS:
Now my real problem is one of mild to moderate annoyance. Anytime I do anything that requires file browsing -- i.e. using Windows Explorer or using, for instance, the "browse" feature while trying to save a file in any application -- the computer locks up for 10-20 seconds, as if confused. I've also noticed that when I try to directly type a URL into MS Internet Explorer, it freezes for about that length of time as well. This does not ALWAYS happen, but I'd say it happens 80% of the time. It especially seems to happen recently after a reboot. For instance, the first few times I open Windows Explorer after a reboot. I've actually taken to just leaving Win Explorer open all the time to avoid this minor lockup.
Anyway, it's just getting to be a pain. I'm wondering if I should maybe go into my BIOS and see if there is a drive identified as D: and try to get rid of it, naming the others D: and E: as they should be. But then would I have to map drives?
Any ideas? Where, oh where, did I go wrong?
Thx,
ABS
