How do I create a drive/partition without a letter

[Richard]

Hi. I want to clean install windows XP on an NTFS partition But I need to
have a small FAT partition on my HDD, in order to be able to run a boot
program from it.

Ideally before I remove the OS (having backed up all my data) I want to
create a 50 Mb FAT partition right at the beginning of the drive. The second
partition of course willl need to become C:. Now how do I create this 50 Mb
FAT partition and it not be assigned a drive letter? Of course it has to be
accessible, but Windows (And DOS perhaps) must not assign it a letter.

Even though this FAT partition will exist, when it comes to install XP, I'm
hoping that if I'm asked to chose a drive and I choose C:, it will be the
second partition on the HDD, not the first (not that it could install it on
the first). TIA.

 

[Richard]

Hi. I want to clean install windows XP on an NTFS partition But I need to
have a small FAT partition on my HDD, in order to be able to run a boot
program from it.

Ideally before I remove the OS (having backed up all my data) I want to
create a 50 Mb FAT partition right at the beginning of the drive. The
second partition of course willl need to become C:. Now how do I create
this 50 Mb FAT partition and it not be assigned a drive letter? Of course
it has to be accessible, but Windows (And DOS perhaps) must not assign it
a letter.

Even though this FAT partition will exist, when it comes to install XP,
I'm hoping that if I'm asked to chose a drive and I choose C:, it will be
the second partition on the HDD, not the first (not that it could install
it on the first). TIA.

Oh, I can do this now. With either Disk Management or Partition Magic.

I see that the boot program is to be put on a PRIMARY partition. Okay, well
if that is the case I guess this first partition containing the boot
program, must be set inactive, so will not appear. The second partition will
be active and that will be C:. If I'm right then setting the first primary
partition inactive does not mean the boot program on it cannot be accessed.
That must be.

The only concern then is will I be able to install XP with a 50 Mb inactive
partition at the beginning of the HDD?

 

[Richard]

I see that the boot program is to be put on a PRIMARY partition. Okay,
well if that is the case I guess this first partition containing the boot
program, must be set inactive, so will not appear. The second partition
will be active and that will be C:. If I'm right then setting the first
primary partition inactive does not mean the boot program on it cannot be
accessed. That must be.

The only concern then is will I be able to install XP with a 50 Mb
inactive partition at the beginning of the HDD?

I don't think I can do what I want.

If you make a primary partition active, then of course Windows is going to
assign it a drive letter.

If the partition is not active, and not hidden, it too will be seen by
Windows and assigned a drive letter.

If the partition has it's drive letter removed by Disk Management, then
Windows will not assign a drive letter and you will not see the partition in
My Computer. However, you will see the partition in Disk Management and
PartitionMagic.

That's fine, but when you install the boot program (BootMagic) you do so on
a primary partition and you must verify that it has a drive letter. I
suppose because you could not install the program if the partition did not
have a drive letter. So, if the partition has a drive letter, when Windows
boots, it must surely show that drive in My Computer.

I was hoping that you could have the boot program on a primary partition
that did not show up on My Computer.

I'm assuming that if you put a program on a partition with a drive letter,
then hide that partition, it's becomes not accessible, so that is not the
answer.

Also, I am assuming that you cannot later remove the drive letter from the
partition with the boot program on, because it won't then work.

Thanks if you know of a solution.