Lost Logical Drive in DOS, Not Windows 98SE

[bbildman]

Hi, I tried to install xp on my hard drive, and decided to abandon it.
I had another hard drive that I use to backup the current drive, and I
use WIn 98SE. I used a Partition manager to simply copy the entire hard
drive (backup) to the current drive, thus trashing any XP I had on it.
When I finally booted (into DOS), I find no E: drive (I have C,D and E)
-- but when I boot into WIndows 98SE, I see the E; drive no problem.

The partition program sees only C and D, but no E.

I then used FDISK to try to wipe the drive clean and start from
scratch, but am finding that even FDISK sees ONLY a portion of my hard
drive (I have an 80 G drive) but FDISK when I ask it to creat a new
single partiton, only give me 10 gigs, and the other 70 are not there.

I don't have a clue as to what happened, but when I installed XP I made
the XP partiton NTFS and left the others FAT.

Seems to me I should be able to totally start over with a "like new"
drive in FDISK, but obviously there a byte or two that is telling the
computer and the bios that I can only access 10 of the 80 gigs.

So I wipe the drive clean in the partition program and copy the backup
drive back to the current and the E; drive is once again missing.

The backup drive HAS all it's partitions, so I decide to see what
happens if I copy the current HD to the backup. What I get is a HD that
is missing the E: drive in DOS, and in WIndows, I have CDE and F, with
the E drive corrupted in all subdirectories.

So....helpers, what must to do to get my hard drives working like
they're supposed to, thanks for ANY help

 

[Rod Speed]

Hi, I tried to install xp on my hard drive, and decided to abandon it.
I had another hard drive that I use to backup the current drive, and I
use WIn 98SE. I used a Partition manager to simply copy the entire
hard drive (backup) to the current drive, thus trashing any XP I had
on it. When I finally booted (into DOS), I find no E: drive (I have
C,D and E) -- but when I boot into WIndows 98SE, I see the E; drive
no problem.

The partition program sees only C and D, but no E.

I then used FDISK to try to wipe the drive clean and start from
scratch, but am finding that even FDISK sees ONLY a portion of my hard
drive (I have an 80 G drive) but FDISK when I ask it to creat a new
single partiton, only give me 10 gigs, and the other 70 are not there.

Thats due to using an obsolete version of fdisk.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/263044/en-us

I don't have a clue as to what happened, but when I installed
XP I made the XP partiton NTFS and left the others FAT.

Seems to me I should be able to totally start over with a "like new"
drive in FDISK, but obviously there a byte or two that is telling the
computer and the bios that I can only access 10 of the 80 gigs.

Thats easily fixed, just use the lastest version of fdisk.

So I wipe the drive clean in the partition program and copy the backup
drive back to the current and the E; drive is once again missing.

The backup drive HAS all it's partitions, so I decide to see what
happens if I copy the current HD to the backup. What I get is a
HD that is missing the E: drive in DOS, and in WIndows, I have
CDE and F, with the E drive corrupted in all subdirectories.

So....helpers, what must to do to get my
hard drives working like they're supposed to,

Just use the lastest version of fdisk and start over.

 

[Svend Olaf Mikkelsen]

Hi, I tried to install xp on my hard drive, and decided to abandon it.
I had another hard drive that I use to backup the current drive, and I
use WIn 98SE. I used a Partition manager to simply copy the entire hard
drive (backup) to the current drive, thus trashing any XP I had on it.
When I finally booted (into DOS), I find no E: drive (I have C,D and E)
-- but when I boot into WIndows 98SE, I see the E; drive no problem.

The partition program sees only C and D, but no E.

I then used FDISK to try to wipe the drive clean and start from
scratch, but am finding that even FDISK sees ONLY a portion of my hard
drive (I have an 80 G drive) but FDISK when I ask it to creat a new
single partiton, only give me 10 gigs, and the other 70 are not there.

I don't have a clue as to what happened, but when I installed XP I made
the XP partiton NTFS and left the others FAT.

Seems to me I should be able to totally start over with a "like new"
drive in FDISK, but obviously there a byte or two that is telling the
computer and the bios that I can only access 10 of the 80 gigs.

So I wipe the drive clean in the partition program and copy the backup
drive back to the current and the E; drive is once again missing.

The backup drive HAS all it's partitions, so I decide to see what
happens if I copy the current HD to the backup. What I get is a HD that
is missing the E: drive in DOS, and in WIndows, I have CDE and F, with
the E drive corrupted in all subdirectories.

So....helpers, what must to do to get my hard drives working like
they're supposed to, thanks for ANY help

Also, since you were not able to see the same partitions in DOS and
Windows 98:


With Windows 98 you have to consider the DOS/Windows 95/98/ME
partition table issues:

If an extended partition ends cylinder 1024 or later, the type of the
extended partition must be type 0F. If it is not, data damage will
occur. Links to next extended partition tables should still be type
05.

If the last partition in any extended partition is not a FAT
partition, each disk cannot contain more than one primary FAT
partition. If this rule is not followed, data damage can occur.

If the last partition in any extended partition is not a FAT
partition, all extended partitions should be of the same type. If one
disk has an extended partition type 0F, all extended partition on all
disks in the system must be type 0F. Damage can occur if this rule is
not followed


If a disk is larger that 32 GB, you have to consider the Windows 98 32
GB problem. If the problem is present, disk read and write will wrap
at 32 GB in Windows 98 (but not DOS).

Disks larger than 128 GB should usually not be used with Windows 98.

If a partition table problem is present, you can get Findpart at

http://www.partitionsupport.com/utilities.htm

do:

findpart all fp.txt

and mail me the file fp.txt.

 

[bbildman]

I solved the problem by clearing the partitions with aefdisk, and then
used my partiton manager to re=partition the drive...then booted both
drives and copied all my files from one drive to another, worked
perfectly, but took a LONG time.

Thanks everyone

 

[bbildman]

Also, on looking at my partiton id it is listed as::

0B for the primary and the individual partitons in the extended, but
the entire extended is listed as 0F...I assume this is not correct??

 

[Svend Olaf Mikkelsen]

Also, on looking at my partiton id it is listed as::

0B for the primary and the individual partitons in the extended, but
the entire extended is listed as 0F...I assume this is not correct??

Correct if the primary FAT32 partition ends cylinder 1023 or lower.