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Win98SE Shows 2 instances of harddrive partition.

Hi all, I'm new here.

My Problem:

I decided to use Win98SE for gaming and WinXP for applications. I used cfdisk to create c:(98root) d:(98storage) e:(xpstorage) f:(xproot). I installed the operating systems fine but had no drivers for Win98SE so i used WinXP for a while. When i got the drivers for Win98SE i formatted d:(98storage) as fat32 from inside WinXP. I then copied the Win98SE drivers from e:(xpstorage) to d:(98storage) so i could install them. When i booted up Win98SE and opened "My Computer" it showed C:(98root) D: and E:(98storage). The weird part, both D: and E:(98storage) are the same 18.6GB partition, but E:(98storage) had the drivers i had copied over on it, but D: is empty. As far as i know i can move data onto either. WinXP still shows only one instance of the 18.6GB partition. I have tried reinstalling Win98SE with no success but did not wipe C:(98root) beforehand so as not to remove the WinXP bootloader. I have also tried removing HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/enum/ to make it redetect everything but it failed also. What can i do? I'm running out of fingernail to bite and i WAY don't want to reinstall WinXP + updates + firewall + .NET 2003 + Office 2003. Hey, theres probably a simple solution but buggered if i can find it.

Cheers, Hugh.

nobus

i thought, you should first install win98, then winXP

Possum_Vashti

ASKER

That's what i did. I fixed the ghost D: drive with a low-level format prog from maxtor and re-did everything but after i installed Win98SE i formatted D:(98STORAGE) as fat32, ran scandisk with thourogh option, installed WinRAR onto the partition and rebooted but since then it won't let me into the drive and keeps popping up windows saying "A device attached to the system is not functioning". My Computer\Properties\Performance tells me that "Drive D: is using a ms-dos compatability filesystem". There is no little yellow exclamation mark next to hard-disk controllers under device manager. I have installed the Via Hyperion 4 in 1 drivers which i think contains an updated ide driver but that did nothing.

nobus

could it be that the ghosted drive was faulty? what was the reason for ghosting?

Possum_Vashti

ASKER

I beleive that to be a misunderstanding of terminology. I did not use Norton Ghost if that's what you mean or any other drive program. The D: was the SAME PARTITION as 98storage. One showed empty and the other showed files. I think what caused the second instance of the partition was formatting it with Win98SE, then getting the same old crap so i formatted it with WinXP Pro which must use an updated version of FAT32. Anyway i beleive the other problem was Win98 Format doing a crappy job and i got lot's of filesystem errors. I just did another low-level format and then used Recovery Console on the WinXP Pro cd to format the partitions as fat32. This time after installing 98SE i get no errors and seems more responsive than ever, and NO "ms-dos compatability mode filesystem". Has anyone else had problems with Win98SE format utility, I remember when i first bought 98SE i still got the odd filesystem error when emptying the recycle bin or something. Cheers nobus for bothering to answer :) .

Hugh

p.s Hey, does that mean i get the points back ;)

nobus

if you want your points back, just post a question in community support

Possum_Vashti

ASKER

thanks, will do.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

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