I have a problem in dos mode
before i install XP it work fine all my HD were there in dos mode and
after i have installed winXP when i go in dos mode with my old win98 CD as a boot disk or a floppy drive my drive a: and cdrom are here but my hard drives like c: d: and e: are not in dos mode so what do i do so i can make these harddrives work in dos mode

the type of mother board i bought is a
P4 mainboard
processor 1.80GHZ

if you converted the harddisks with xp install to NTFS then dos cant read it
dos can only read fat partitions

Is it possible to make 1 HD for dos mode
or if not

an other way to go in CMOS and i change it for dos mode to be able to read it
and restore back when i go in winXP without harming my data and programs

no restore back with bios is not possible, i think partitionmagic can convert from ntfs to fat32

how do i convert that

and is it true that will not harm or cause errors

the best is first of all, make a backup of your data to cd or other harddisk

than maybe partition magic will convert it back
but after that i am sure you have to repair the bootsector with the xp rescueshell from cd to start xp again

other solution if you have no partitionmagic
backup data
fdisk from dos and delete the ntfs partition, create a new fat partition format t and install xp again without converting filesystem, then copy backuped data back

i know that sounds hard for you.

can we convert only 1 hard drive like for example drive c: or e: because d: is the master i would'nt convert the master

to convert it what i have to write or do in CMOS etc...

and if is converted would win XP be able to read it or add files in win mode on the converted drive

cmos cannot convert anything, forget cmos with your problem

i know what you mean i think fdisk
the program can create, delete and do other on HD's

so i format the HD and i make it fat32
or other source that should work in dos mode

so just a thing can winXP read it if it became a hardrive readable for dos

yes xp can read all FAT versions and NTFS

before format the hardisk you have to repartition it that means delete none dos partition (its the ntfs) and create a new primary partition

then reboot
then format

and backup your data before using fdisk

just a safety thing if i turn 1 HD into a fat32 after i move all my stuff on others it will not corrupt the others harddrives like example i format c: and make it fat32

i will not comfuse the mother board and affect the d: with XP on it and e: with other data on it and in the c: is mostly empty is a 6.4Gb hd

if you installed xp on d: and your bios boots from c: then you have a little problem

or you have configured your bios to boot from d:

the problem is, i need to know which driveletter is assigned to which partition to give you the best and safest solution

what you mean by driveletter is assigned to which partition to give you the best and safest solution

when a computer technician install the winXP the drive c refuse to become the master again so the D: is the master and the computer will work with the C: remove because the c: is now a slave

c: and e: are slaves

master and slave is depending on hardware jumper settings or cable select, not what any operatingsystem says
and driveletter at xp can be set like you wish and dont say anything about the hardware config and which partition is used, you have to look in the systemmanagment console to know which letter is assigned to which partition and drive

where do i have to go to go in the systemmanagment console is it in windowXP , in CMOS or others

xp, administrator tools and so on, dont know exactly in xp try to learn something of your system with searching and starting system tools

again, forget cmos, who told you any storries about cmos?

i'll take a look in the admin: tool in winXP

i check my HD property
d: and e: are NTFS
the c: is a FAT32

maybe not sure i may know why the c: refuse to show is either not formated or not set in CMOS i think only 2 HD are installed not the third one im not sure

if c: is fat32 then a win98 bootdisk can read that and will assign c: to that partition

i went to the CMOS and enable the C: and now it appear in dos mode so a format was not needed so thanx for your help

ok

last message: xp doesnt use bios functins for harddisk stuff, it uses its own functions

dos need the bios functions for harddisks

thats why xp can see the disk and dos not if its not enabled in bios