I have windows and Mandrake Linux on my comp, with a seperate fat32 partition so I can access my files through either of the OS's, as I use both often. Yesterday I was changing the default OS in LILO and after I did I could no longer access the fat32 drive through windows. I used partition magic and it says the partition is hidden, but unhiding it using PM never works. I searched the posts on this forum, and used google, but I only found that you can use LILO to unhide partitions, but I found nothing that would show me how. I also used fdisk in linux, and it also shows it as hidden. The partition I want unhidden is /dev/hda3. What is the command I have to use to unhide it?


Thanks!!!!
Steve

okay, I went into the Disk Management in the Admin tools in Windows XP, and it sees all the partitions, including the one I want to put back as a drive. It lists it's status as "Healthy (Active)" but the only command available for it is to delete it. I can't sccess it, assign a drive letter for it, or anything. can someone help me please?

Partition Magic and Windows Disk Management won't change it because it's an active partition, how do I make it inactive?

I got exactly the same problem.
My hda (disk0) layout is: hda1-win, hda3-programs, documents, hda5-linux, hda6-swap.
I added some harddrives with a load of partitions on them and installed different linuxes and also installed Paragon Mount Everything in win.
hda3 has become hidden at some point and whatever tool I use (partition magick, qtparted, fdisk, cfdisk) , it becomes hidden again in windows. It seems to me that win converts it into hidden partition for some reason. All other linuxes can read it and convert it but once I start win , it becomes hidden again.
At this point I've decided to save (copy) all data on that partiton and just reformat it.
I also read that some lilo versions make partitions hidden which is doubtful http://lists.debian.org/debian-testi.../msg00097.html , but I'm looking into it

I have verified on my own account that this problem exists and I am sure that LILO is what is causing the partitions to become hidden. I have LILO in the MBR of my main hard drive which has NTFS partitions on hda1 and hda2 and Linux partitions after those. I also have a 2nd hard drive with WinXP on the first partition and a second FAT32 partition.

Just the same, when I use LILO to boot the WinXP partitions, the second partition on either hard drive gets hidden. I can unhide them with a partitioning program like PM (I use Partition Expert) but after reboot, it gets hidden again. HOWEVER - if I unhide the FAT32 on the 2nd drive, and reboot and boot up directly from the 2nd drive [using the default NTLDR] it will boot fine and NOT hide the partition.

By the way, I have LILO v22.6 and I don't think it did this in 22.2...

So... perhaps the advice in that link you posted will work...

I can't try right now because I'm not at home... I'll post again with a follow-up. Hope this helps!

well, whatta you know ... It worked!!!

My proper working lilo:

boot=/dev/hda
message=/boot/splash.lilo
timeout=10
map=/boot/map
prompt
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
reset

other=/dev/hda1
label=Windows®_XP

image=/vmlinuz
label=Xandros_Desktop_3.0_Deluxe
vga=0xf04
root=/dev/hdd6
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.9-x1.gz
append="rw acpi=on "

image=/disks/fedora/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667
label=Fedora_Core_release_3_on_hdd9
initrd=/disks/fedora/boot/initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img
append="ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet"

image=/disks/debian/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-386
label=Debian_GNU_on_hdd5
initrd=/disks/debian/boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-1-386
append="root=/dev/hdd5 ro bootkbd=et"

image=/disks/debian_2/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-386
label=Debian2_on_hdd8
initrd=/disks/debian_2/boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-1-386
append="root=/dev/hdd8"

image=/disks/hdd7/boot/vmlinuz
label=Vector
root=/dev/hdd7
append="root=/dev/hdd7"