HDD's designations changed

I recently installed a 2nd HDD (WD 800JB) 80 GB in my computer. I went thru some of the WD drive setup but it didn't complete to the end. I wasn't absolutely sure that a drive of this size was compatible with Win98fe, which is my O/S, but thought I had taken all the steps needed to get by that obstacle. As of now my situation is this: My original HDD(WD 20GB) was partitioned into 3 partitions as C, D, and E and F became my CD-Rom. After my aborted attempt to install the 2nd HDD my drive designations have changed thusly: C is still C and all ok, D is now blank and E has assumed the identity of D, and a new F has done the same with E and consequently I have lost my CD-Rom. That's all in My Computer. Device Manager does recognize C as C D & E and also the new HDD as G and the CD-Rom as H. I guess what I need to do is a "startover" but am stuck at present. Computer is rendered almost useless as most apps are on D and are now not recognized. I would appreciate advice.

 

you should just use 1 partition for each drive Use C for your operating system
and D for storage or whatever. You might have to use a startup disk and fdisk the drives and delete the partition and then re activate it using only one partition each. Make sure the jumpers are set correctly on the drives according to manufacturer specs (all specs are on the drives themselves). If I understand your problem correctly this should work) Good Luck.

 

The drive letter designations can be confusing depending on what type of partitions are created on the Slave drive. For example your Master drive [1st drive] has a Primary, with an Extended with 2 Logicals created on it. Your Slave drive [2nd drive] has a Primary with an Extended with 2 Logicals. Your drive letters for them will be like this;
Master C: E: F:
Slave D: G: H:
Do you see how the C: is on drive, then the D: is on the other, then E: and F: are back on the Master, then back to the Slave for G: and H:. This is because there is a Primary Partition on both drives. This is normal for this to happen.
If you were to only create an Extended Partition with 3 Logical Drives, no Primary at all, on the Slave [2nd] the drive letters will be like this.
Master C: D: E:
Slave F: G: H:
I am sure this is what you were expecting to see. In this case, only the Master drive has the Primary partition [bootable drive].
In any case in this example, any CD will start with I:, a second CD drive will be J:

How to fix. Boot with a Win98 floppy, type Fdisk at the prompt, and select Drive 2 to work with, and delete all partitions. Then create the Extended Partition, and have it occupy all the drive. Then you create the Logicals inside of the Extended, you can assign a percentage or the size. When you exit Fdisk YOU MUST REBOOT. Boot with the floppy and format the new drives.

Note, if you are nervous using Fdisk, and take out one drive so that you will not mess up the Master Drive, you will not be able to only create the Extended. Fdisk will not allow you to create an Extended without a Primary already created with only one drive in the system.

 

Though markp62's advice is complete and the best idea, this little app has been useful to me to be sure that my drives all had the same letters in ME as they did in XP in a dual boot system. Whether the paths would be correct for apps is something I have not experimented with.

Drive Letter Assigner:
http://www.v72735.f2s.com/LetAssig/Screenshots.html

 

Thank you folks for you have at least given me a place to start which I will do tomorrow. I get myself into these messes and then start flailing. I will be back with further results.