FAT32 partition and Mandrake 9.0

[buttercrunch]

hi all...

this problem has been bugging me for awhile now... i just didnt have the time to think....
anyway i've got 3 hdds... 1 scsi, 2 ides : 1 40Gb, 1 13 Gb.
for the scsi : i made several partitions here for OSs. currently running Linux Mandrake 8.2 and Win98 and QNX all using Lilo to boot.
this is ok.
the IDEs, 40 Gb unpartitioned.
13 Gb, one 9Gb partition and 4 Gb partition.
The IDE Hdds are all FAT32. used to store datas and games and watever else.

Before that i installed mandrake 9.0 and unable to get radeon 8500 working. during the mandrake installation.... for some reason my two IDE Hdds has gone undetected by my win98.... and its still like that after i revert back to 8.2.... and when i tried using FDisk, the two hdds partition is detected as NON-DOS!!!
now i'm only able to access these partitions from linux, not from windows....

had anyone experienced such thing? any one knows what's happening? what can I do to make these partitions be accessible again under windows? because i install alot of windows programs mainly games in these partitions... so i have to be able to access these partitions natively, not network.

please help me....
thx in advance.
:(

[buttercrunch]

bump

[buttercrunch]

bump again..

[linux_lush]

what does linux say they are? ext2 ext3 ect.
I hae never encountered this before you may try booting into windows without them plugged in , then shutting down reconnecting them and booting bak to windows,
or as the last reply

bump

[bwkaz]

When you're booted to Linux, what does cat /proc/mounts say for a filesystem, regarding these partitions? (the format is <partition> <mount point> <filesystem> <other stuff>) If it isn't "vfat", then that's the problem...

Are any extended partitions that this problem involves physically laid out on the disk in the same order that they get recognized by Linux? i.e., hda5 is the first extended partition, hda6 is the second extended partition, etc.

If not, if (for example), hda5 is physically first, then hda7 is next, and hda6 is last, then DOS or Windows partitioning software will have a fit.

THE REASON WHY: The extended partition layout is basically a 1-sector header containing info about each partition, with a link to the sector that marks the beginning of the next paritition in the chain. So it's possible to have the link from hda5 skip a bunch of space after the end of hda5, and point somewhere down later in the disk. This partition will become hda6. If that partition then links backwards (to hda7), that's where MS operating systems have a fit. If this chain isn't laid out straight on the disk, then DOS/Windows won't like it much at all.

This kind of thing can happen if you delete a partition in the middle of a larger set (so that the space gets freed, and later partitions get moved up in the chain), then re-create it (it will get recreated at the end of the chain, rather than where it physically exists). The Linux kernel has no problems with this layout, but Windows and DOS both do.

[buttercrunch]

linux says they are vfat
this is my fstab :

/dev/sda7 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/sda6 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/sda9 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom1 iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/anime auto auto,user,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/installers auto auto,user,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hdb4 /mnt/storage auto auto,user,umask=000 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/windows auto auto,user,defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/sda8 swap swap defaults 0 0

and its the hdb4 and hda1 that's no longer accessible from windows...
i didnt do anything to them during the installation of mandrake.. honest...
they are my storage hdds so i dare not touch them when partitioning and stuff like that... but now... :( ... i really fear they may be erased out of the blue next time...

linux always does strange thing day after day without telling me... :confused:

another case... see here..
http://www.linuxnewbie.org/forum/showthread.php?threadid=69619
when suddenly my cdrom have problem....

[buttercrunch]

bump

[mdwatts]

Can you mount hda1 and hdb4 through Linux and see that the data is still intact?

I was thinking if you could, but cannot access those partitions through Windows due to the 'non-dos' label, you may be able to use the Linux fdisk and change the filesystem type back to vfat.

[mdwatts]

First see if you can use something like PartImage (available through a freshmeat.net search) to take a image of hda1 and hdb4 before you try anything else.

[buttercrunch]

is that really save? i'm scared to be honest..
it contains all my datas for 8 years....
i'll be really really in a big total mess if i lose my datas...

[buttercrunch]

oh yah forgot to tell u.
i can mount and see those partitions from linux no probs at all...
just from windoze thats the problem...
i dunno how a mandrake installation could change the filesystem type without me even touching em....
i shoulda just unplug the hdd when i did the install... :( i'll do that next time...

[mdwatts]

If you have a cdwriter available through Linux, try backing up the data on those partitions.

Have you tried the Linux fdisk yet?