labels of drives

My computer is a Dell optiplex 733mhz, p3 512meg RAM with 2 hard disks 10 gig and 20 gig. Originally, it comes with win2k pro and NTFS file systems. After some kind of accident, I need to reinstall it. I decide to dual boot win98 and win2k pro and adopt file system fat32.

First, I use partition magic diskettes to format the disks into fat32 and divide them into 4 partitions: 5 gig, 5 gig, 10 gig and 10 gig and label them C D E F.

Then I installed win98. No problem there. But when I clicked on my computer, I saw 4 partitions in the order: C( C: ) 5 gig, E( D: ) 10 gig, D( E: ) 5 gig, F( F: ) 10 gig.

Can you explain what 's going on and how to fix it?

 

It has to do with how a dos based system allocates letters to the partitions.
If you have a master partition and a secondary partition on each drive, the drive letters will be like this.

Drive 1
C:
E:

Drive 2
D:
F:

The Master partitions are given priority for the letters over the Secondaries.

How to fix:
Delete the Master and Secondary Partitions on Drive 2, then just create a Secondary, then create two Logical Drives inside this Secondary.

You should end up with this;

Drive 1
C:
D:

Drive 2
E:
F:

I am not sure how partition magic disks work, but using FDISK from a 98 Boot floppy will do this.
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
If you want one, go to the above link, get the file for 98SE OEM. Put a floppy into the drive, and run the file and a 98 floppy will be created for you.

 

Thanks, now I understand it but there is a problem. As I intend to dual boot with win2k pro which requires a primary partition. That is the reason I keep one primary partition in the 2nd disk. So what is the overall solution ?

 

Sorry, that slipped my mind.
You would need to create only the Master Partition on Drive 1, then the Master and Extended on Drive 2.