So here goes nothing :P

My inital partitioning:
C: 20GB / Windows XP / NTFS
D: 100GB / Files/Backup / NTFS

Problem #1
Yesterday i removed the C: NTFS partition to install FC3 on it, well all worked fine but i got tierd of FC3 not recognizing my main NIC, booted up from the winXP-cd and removed all the FC3 partitions... My former D: partition was now C:... well here lies the problem..my xp wont install on nothing but C:, and you cant's "rename" your partitions in the XP install-partitioner...

Tried different aproaches but it wont start install when i tried to format and install on the D: partition...

Well i gave up and installed Mandrake, everything works fine (one problem though, as you will se later), the thing is, i "have" to have Windows on this machine, as i am returning it to a friend of mine. Wiithout removing or totaly formating the former D: with stored data.

Maybe you have some suggestions of how i should get out of this mess, or maybe recommend a good partitioner program for drake? (i'm running mandrake 10.1 now), so i could make the C: to a D: ....without loosing the data stored..

Problem #2
Well as you saw in the beggining i have an NTFS 100GB partition, and Mandrake should of have NTFS support, but my mounted NTFS partition is only 14GB in mandrake and contains only 2 folders:
-System Volume Information
-RECYCLER

They are both pretty much empty, in a previous FC2 installation when i had installed and mounted the NTFS support everrything worked good, with the same partition, now i have tried re-mounting and re-installing the NTFS support, nothing..

Nevertheless, Question #1 has a higher priority, i would be VERY thankfull if someone out here could help me // Greets Joakim from Sweden

Windoze just needs partition to be bootable. As long as partition is bootable, it is recognized as C:\
It's easily configurable using cfdisk

I've flagged another partition as the Bootable, unflagged the "C:", and still the Windows XP install partitioner sees my NTFS partition as C:, and the rest of the partitions unchanged,,, Remember, it's not Windows XP system , but the installation program..

Incase you wonderedm Yes i wrote the partition table onto the disk.

Thank You for the tip, something other i might try?

you might want to restore windoze MBR first?
fdisk /mbr
I've never tried that. Some people reported crashes!! use carefully. read manual before

Hmm, well as long as there is a high risk, i probably won't be doing it. Maybe there is another way out, somebody ?

// Jocke

Linux is no fun when you are forced to run it , then it's like window$... :P

Well well, let's try the MBR restore

My C: partition with the data, that i want as the D: is sda2
My fat32 formated D: that i want as C: is sda5

Which one should i restore.. and the command would be

fdisk sda2 /mbr ?

It is against my policy to install M$ on my box, but for research's sake I gave try. XPee boot disk booted with notice that it had to set newly created partition active and if desired or supported by secondary operating system partition can be set inactive. That's what it did, actually:
It created M$ boot sector on new partition and booted from it without damaging my linux root grub.
After install I wasn't able to boot Linux, of course. So. I booted with secondary install disk of Slackware, ran cfdisk deselected NTFS partition as bootable and selected Linux as bootable. Reboot!
Loading linux.......