Non-Dos Partition

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starman

This has been a problem with me for a long time. I am hopeing some of you
experts can give me an answer?
I have three computers linked up to cable modem with a Linksys Cable Router.
All is well except one problem that has been bothering me for a long time.
I partitioned and formatted all my computers to FAT32. Two are Windows XP
Home Edition. One is Windows ME. For what ever reason all three computers
changed from FAT 32 to a Non-Dos partition in dos? Why? I cannot boot it
to a boot disk because it will not recogize C drive. Yet I can go into
windows in all three computers and it recogizes FAT32 in Windows Explorer!
Can anyone tell me why this happens? It's been bugging me for a long time,
and I can't find out from anyone why this happens? Could someone do the
following?

1. Tell me why it changes from a FAT32 Partition to a Non-Dos partition in
DOS

2. How I can recogize a boot disk when booting with CDROM drivers with a
Non-Dos Partition?

3. How I can change them back to FAT32 without losing all my data?

I would be a very happy camper if I could have someone help me with this.
Thanks ahead of time.

Joe
 
starman said:
This has been a problem with me for a long time. I am hopeing some of you
experts can give me an answer?
I have three computers linked up to cable modem with a Linksys Cable Router.
All is well except one problem that has been bothering me for a long time.
I partitioned and formatted all my computers to FAT32. Two are Windows XP
Home Edition. One is Windows ME. For what ever reason all three computers
changed from FAT 32 to a Non-Dos partition in dos? Why? I cannot boot it
to a boot disk because it will not recogize C drive. Yet I can go into
windows in all three computers and it recogizes FAT32 in Windows Explorer!
Can anyone tell me why this happens? It's been bugging me for a long time,
and I can't find out from anyone why this happens? Could someone do the
following?

1. Tell me why it changes from a FAT32 Partition to a Non-Dos partition in
DOS

2. How I can recogize a boot disk when booting with CDROM drivers with a
Non-Dos Partition?

3. How I can change them back to FAT32 without losing all my data?

I would be a very happy camper if I could have someone help me with this.
Thanks ahead of time.

Joe
Click to expand...

what you need is a *newer* boot disk

a bootdisk made with win95B or above can recognize a fat32 partition

but msdos or win95a can only "see" fat(16)...
fat32 will be seen as "non-dos"

you can get a newer bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com
or make one from a win98 cd
 
Unfortunitely I have tried all three boot disk (XP,me,98, 95b). All
resulted in the same problem. They were all made from Bootdisk.com.
Joe
 
starman said:
Unfortunitely I have tried all three boot disk (XP,me,98, 95b). All
resulted in the same problem. They were all made from Bootdisk.com.
Joe
Click to expand...

were the machines set up with drive overlay software???

if so you need to boot from floppy via the overlay
 
This has been a problem with me for a long time. I am hopeing some of you
experts can give me an answer?
I have three computers linked up to cable modem with a Linksys Cable Router.
All is well except one problem that has been bothering me for a long time.
I partitioned and formatted all my computers to FAT32. Two are Windows XP
Home Edition. One is Windows ME. For what ever reason all three computers
changed from FAT 32 to a Non-Dos partition in dos? Why? I cannot boot it
to a boot disk because it will not recogize C drive. Yet I can go into
windows in all three computers and it recogizes FAT32 in Windows Explorer!
Can anyone tell me why this happens? It's been bugging me for a long time,
and I can't find out from anyone why this happens? Could someone do the
following?

1. Tell me why it changes from a FAT32 Partition to a Non-Dos partition in
DOS

2. How I can recogize a boot disk when booting with CDROM drivers with a
Non-Dos Partition?

3. How I can change them back to FAT32 without losing all my data?

I would be a very happy camper if I could have someone help me with this.
Thanks ahead of time.

Joe
Click to expand...


If you are booting DOS as in MSDOS 6.22 or earlier, it didn't know about
FAT32. All it understood was FAT12 & FAT16. The DOS that is under
Win95b/98/ME (would have been MSDOS 7.x) includes FAT32 support.

JT
 
Did you use a drive overlay such as Maxblast or Ontrak? If so, your
partitions will not show up as fat32 when you boot from a floppy.

JT
 
No drive overlay at all. When I orginally partitioned and formatted I made
it a point to check whether it was Fat 32 or not, and it was Fat 32. This
is why it has me baffled?
Thanks to all of you for helping, but so far I am still dazzed!!!!!
 
I have not used Drive overlay on any of my machines. I made it a point to
partition and format to Fat 32. Before I installed anything I went into
fdisk and checked to make sure it was fat 32. All three machine where set
to fat 32. It would be fine for a couple of days but then switch to a
Non-Dos partition again. This is why I am left scratching my head. Please
help.
 
I have not used Drive overlay on any of my machines. I made it a point to
partition and format to Fat 32. Before I installed anything I went into
fdisk and checked to make sure it was fat 32. All three machine where set
to fat 32. It would be fine for a couple of days but then switch to a
Non-Dos partition again. This is why I am left scratching my head. Please
help.
Click to expand...
When was the last time you did an online virus scan?? Some virus do what
you are describing. http://housecall.antivirus.com or
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan are good places to start.


Also, some utilities like GoBack do that as well. After having problems
like that on a laptop for one of my customers, I will not allow GoBack on a
machine I work on. What utilities do you use (many of them are just
gadgets)? Some of the ones that try to do "automatic repairs and recoverys"
mess with the partition tables and types. I avoid them because they cause
more problems than they solve.

JT
 
This has been a problem with me for a long time. I am hopeing some of you
experts can give me an answer?
I have three computers linked up to cable modem with a Linksys Cable Router.
All is well except one problem that has been bothering me for a long time.
I partitioned and formatted all my computers to FAT32. Two are Windows XP
Home Edition. One is Windows ME. For what ever reason all three computers
changed from FAT 32 to a Non-Dos partition in dos? Why? I cannot boot it
to a boot disk because it will not recogize C drive. Yet I can go into
windows in all three computers and it recogizes FAT32 in Windows Explorer!
Can anyone tell me why this happens? It's been bugging me for a long time,
and I can't find out from anyone why this happens? Could someone do the
following?

1. Tell me why it changes from a FAT32 Partition to a Non-Dos partition in
DOS
Click to expand...
Corrupt MBR(Master Boot Record).
Use a boot floppy and issue the
fdisk /mbr
command and press Enter to reset the Master boot record.
2. How I can recogize a boot disk when booting with CDROM drivers with a
Non-Dos Partition?
Click to expand...

If the boot disk contains the Cdrom drivers it shouldn't matter.

3. How I can change them back to FAT32 without losing all my data?
Click to expand...

See above or use a program like,"Partition Magic".

HTH :)



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http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
email shepATpartyheld.de
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http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm
 
No drive overlay at all. When I orginally partitioned and formatted I made
it a point to check whether it was Fat 32 or not, and it was Fat 32. This
is why it has me baffled?
Thanks to all of you for helping, but so far I am still dazzed!!!!!
Click to expand...

Why did you trust GoBack?

When Goback is installed it changes the drive type so no other disk
utility will mess with that drive. It's very much like an overlay in
some regards.

You need to disable Goback so the partitions/drives are marked back as
their appropriate types.
 
Please someone must know the answer to this? So far I have tried all of
these remedies. No one has answered any of the three questions that gives a
satisfaction to my questions? Thank you all for trying though?
 
Please someone must know the answer to this? So far I have tried all of
these remedies. No one has answered any of the three questions that gives a
satisfaction to my questions? Thank you all for trying though?
 
Please someone must know the answer to this? So far I have tried all of
these remedies. No one has answered any of the three questions that gives a
satisfaction to my questions? Thank you all for trying though?
 
Please someone must know the answer to this? So far I have tried all of
these remedies. No one has answered any of the three questions that gives a
satisfaction to my questions? Thank you all for trying though?
Click to expand...

What is the partition type for the non-dos partitions?
You can use the DOS version,
ftp://ftp.powerquest.com/pub/utilities/PTEDIT.zip
or the Windows version,
ftp://ftp.powerquest.com/pub/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip
of ptedit to find out.
 
Have you installed any programs such as Goback?

starman said:
Please someone must know the answer to this? So far I have tried all of
these remedies. No one has answered any of the three questions that gives a
satisfaction to my questions? Thank you all for trying though?

partition
Click to expand...
 
Yes, Goback was installed? Can I get Fat32 back if I uninstalled GoBack?
Click to expand...

You would do well to read people's responses to you. As I said 2 days
ago,

Why did you trust GoBack?

When Goback is installed it changes the drive type so no other disk
utility will mess with that drive. It's very much like an overlay in
some regards.

You need to disable Goback so the partitions/drives are marked back as
their appropriate types.
 
You can still use goback and be able to boot to a floppy or cd. When the
goback screen comes up at boot, hit the space bar. This will allow you to
boot from removable media after the goback driver loads so you can access
your partitions.
 
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