Unhide FAT32 partition in WINXP

[Beavbo]

OK, here's the issue. I have my hard drive partitioned as follows:

hda1: WINXP (NTFS) Primary
hda2: SHARED (FAT32) Primary
hda3: Boot partition (EXT3) Primary
hda4: extended
hda5: swap partition Logical
hda6: / (Reiser FS) Logical
hda7: /home (Reiser FS) Logical



I installed WINXP and then Linux and installed lilo to the MBR (/dev/hda). I can boot both Operating Systems just fine, however the Shared drive (i'd like to call it D:/) is inaccessible in Windows. Using Partition Manager, I can unhide it, then go into Disk Management and assign it a drive letter and then access it. However, whenever I reboot, it is once again hidden and I need to reopen partition manager and disk management to access it. Also, under Linux I used cfdisk and changed the offending partition from (hidden w95 fat32 LBA) to (w95 fat32 LBA). This had no effect. I have no problems accessing the partition from Linux. I have done some reading and there is some indication that there may be some way to unhide it using LILO however I can't seem to figure it out. Also, might the problem have something to do with both the WINXP and Shared partitions being "Primary"?? I have a lot of data ~20GB on the Shared drive making it not desireable to repartition it using Windows as it would take quite a bit of work transferring this data to empty parts of partitions on my 2 boxes. If anyone has any idea for an easy way for Windows to automatically detect the partition and not hide it, it would be much appreciated. Nothing urgent, just a minor annoyance y'know.


Also, the notable parts of my /etc/lilo.conf are:

boot=/dev/hda
root=/dev/hda6 (root)
default=Linux
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.24-xfs
label=Linux
initrd=/boot/initrd.gz

other=/dev/hda1
Label="Windows XP"


Thanks,

Scott

[EnigmaOne]

Windows/DOS hates two or more primary partitions on the same physical drive.

Resolution: Merge the partition into an extended partition, if you have the tools to do so.

[Beavbo]

Hey,

Thanks for the reply. I searched around for a bit trying to figure out how to merge a primary partition into an extended partition, but from what I was reading it sounds as if I need to merge it with unallocated parts of my disk? I may be incorrect, but if not, i'm not so sure thats a feasible option as my entire drive is allocated for something or other....looks like its back to eugooglizing....

[BeDe]

Try Partition Magic. It can pretty advanced stuff.

[EnigmaOne]

Yeah, the arrangement you really need, to give access to the part in question to both OSses--along the lines of my own habitual practices, of course--would look like:

hda1: WINXP (NTFS) Primary
hda2: Boot partition (EXT3) Primary
hda3: swap partition Linux swap
hda4: extended
hda5: SHARED (FAT32) Logical
hda6: / (Reiser FS) Logical
hda7: /home (Reiser FS) Logical

I'd lean in the direction of it being less than possible to do with PartitionMagic.