Hi Stephen, Posting to the list, since my suggestions actually include one that requires Linux. :-)
The platform had a HD pack up last week and I siezed upon that as an excuse to increase my HD space on that platform. I got a 45GB Maxtor - I've had good luck with Maxtor DH's in the past and their software makes installation very easy. I accepted the Maxtor default FAT16 partitioning and created 23 2GB partitions with a smaller 24th partition on the end. Subsequent to this step is where I generate the problem for which I'm seeking a solution. Because of the new drive there are more than 26 partitions on the machine, which exceeds the limit that the Win95 File Manager, actually it's power desk - which is based on the Win95. So the Win95 File Manager ran out of assignable drive letters before it assigned a letter to the CD drive. BIOS still finds the CD during boot and Linux certainly does but Win95 doesn't. The file manager sees drives A through U, with the exception of B.
My first suggestion would be to switch to a more managable amount of FAT32 partitions (infact, you could just have 1 FAT32 + 2 Linux parititions). This would be a good excuse to upgrade to a newer Windows release such as Windows 98 SE or Windows 2000 (avoid WinME) that support FAT32.
One of the 'experts' I consulted said duhhhhhh and the other said that he thought that there was a number restriction that MS imposes on Win, but he wasn't sure. I dimly remember something about a lastdrive specification in MS OSs, but no details.
I'd recommend going and getting a copy of TweakUI from Microsoft (it's free). You can find it in their download section. I'm pretty sure you can set the "lastdrive" setting via that tool, although I'm so sure that U might not be the limit no matter what. Another suggestion: Since you surely don't need all of those drives right now, use Linux's fdisk to change the partition ID of a few of them to something besides FAT (i.e. HPFS or even ext2). This would hide the extra drives, making room for the CD-ROM drive to be displayed. Best, Tim -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Timothy R. Butler Universal Networks Information Tech. Consultant Christian Web Services Since 1996 ICQ #12495932 AIM: Uninettm An Authorized IPSwitch Reseller tbutler@uninetsolutions.com http://www.uninetsolutions.com ============== "Information Powered by Innovation" ==============