Once those partitions are created and formatted and labeled, (Volume Label: label), write down the labels for the partitions.
Boot up linux. mkdir /mnt/(directory names you want).

Edit /etc/fstab.

If you labeled the partitions:
The entry you will add is: LABEL=(Volume Label) /mnt/(Directory Name) vfat defaults 0 0.

If LABEL=( ) doesn't work then see the device naming post I made above. Primary partitions are 1-4 logical are 5-63. Yes, linux will support 63 partitions. If a non-MS partition resides in the first Primary partition, XP may or may not give you options for more primary partitions--its O.K. to make them all extended. Linux doesn't care.

The other way to put in the entry in /etc/fstab is:
/dev/hdxx /mnt/(Directory Name) vfat defaults 0 0

Let's say that the jumpers on the drive are set for master, it is on the secondary IDE channel of your Motherboard (the mother board will have either "Primary IDE" or "IDE0" and "Secondary IDE" or "IDE1" next to or below the connectors), and you want the first logical drive mounted to directory /mnt/WIN_DATA on boot-up.

/dev/hdc5 /mnt/WIN_DATA vfat defaults 0 0
That should work.

Thanks for all the input guys.

Unfortunately this stuff is way over my head so I'll just let it be until Mandrake 9.98 comes out and will be able to resolve this problem.

It wasn't that big of a deal as I can still boot into Windows XP and do my regular thing if need be.

Did you read the last post on the first page????????????

I did but it seems risky because the earlier posts got me paranoid about me losing data. LOL

So I just won't risk it and leave it as it is.

V32 fat is limited in size to 30gig. You will have to setup 2 30gig partions to have the V32 fat option.

so there is absolutly no ability to write to an NTFS drive through mandrake 9.1?

there is currently no ability to write to NTFS in the 2.4.x kernel (ie ANY linux distro). I think there is experimental write capabilities in the 2.6.x series kernel (the latest in testing).

Experimental writing to NTFS has been ongoing for years. It has been an option in the standard source code for quite a while and a patch before that. The NTFS now is not the NTFS from NT/W2K-gold. It has been patched and changed at least three times.

Pull out an old copy of partition magic and see what I mean.

Trying to reverse-engineer something that changes mid-stream on you isn't going to give the best results.

Chances are pretty good that when MS brings out their Brand "New and Improved" filesystem on their next generation O.S. they will stop tinkering with NTFS--Shortly after that, you will see a mature and stable read/write module for the kernel.

Until then, unless you need cutting-edge speed on file-serving in Windows, don't select or convert to NTFS.
Good stable equipment and a UPS will prevent file corruption on fat32 99.09% of the time. And recovery is much easier--it has been for me. Then again, I could be wrong.