partitions problem

[tralala]

Hi guys!
don't know if this is the right place for my question but i hope someone can help.
i have a serious problem with the partitions on my computer. i'm a linux newbie, so any help will be apreciated.
i have 2 operating systems on my computer : win xp (partitions: 1 ntfs & 1 fat32) and rootlinux (1 linux native - ext32 & 1 swap).
the problem is that i've had installed linux after windows and i can't acces anymore the fat32 partition, because it's hidden. i've tried to change it (hidden fat32 to fat32) from linux with fdisk and cfdisk but when i write the partition table i get this message: "Wrote partition table, but re-read table failed. Reboot to update table". If i restart my computer in linux the partition table it's ok. fdisk tells me that my fat32 partition it's not hidden. If i restart my computer in windows i can't see this partition and after that in linux, fdisk tells me that my fat32 partition it's hidden again. How can i resolve this problem. is there something wrong in fstab or mtab files? there are 30 gb of data that i can't loose.
Thank you!

[daveyboy]

have you been using anything like partition magic on your hd? that can mean a world of pain.

have you tried "fdisk /mbr" with the windows fdisk(after making a linux boot disk, of course)?

that often does the trick with windows.

if you CAN read your fat32 partition from linux, i would recommend burning that data to cdr NOW before you bugger about with the partition table any more.

[tralala]

No i haven't. Maybe i'll try partition magic even if i hate this program. i used it sometime ago and i destroyed everything on my hdd.
the partition it's hidden, so i don't think the problem is in mbr.
yes, i can read the partition from linux, but there are 30 gb of data, so i don't think that burning the dato to cd-roms is a solution. anyway my x it's not working. i'm goin' crazy with linux... just problems. is there an application that i can use in command line to burn the cd-roms? When i have installed linux i didn't change the partitions. Before everything it was ok. After the linux installation one partitionbecomed hidden. Why? I'm really a newbie. I was reading some documentation online and i have installed linux but the partitions were ok. What am i doing wrog?
Thank you for your time Daveboy.

[thessoro]

yes, i can read the partition from linux

Well, then the problem is that w'xp can't access that partition if i have understood.

Of course there is a command line cd burner in linux. It's cdrecord, but it doesn't work as simple as you can imagine. If you aren't going to burn .iso images directly you have to make an iso image of what you want to burn before burning it.
First of all, run:
cdrecord -scanbus to see if your cdrw is installed, (this is not trivial on linux). You should have enabled SCSI support in the kernel for the recorder to work. (There are a lot of HOWTOs about doing this).
If cdrecord -scanbus works, you should have obtain the number in which your device is, something like: 0,0,0 or 0,0,2... whatever depending on the ide it is installed in.

Then, just run this command

mkisofs -J /filestoburn/ | cdrecord -v dev=0,0,0 speed=x -
where 0,0,0 is the device shown at cdrecord -scanbus and x is the speed of your recorder. (or the speed you want your recorder to work at). Notice the final "-"
Be aware of the cd-size, if you're not sure how big is going to be, use another method! (HOWTOs). Take into account that the size of a CD filesystem is bigger depending on the complexity of the files tree.

If burning .iso .raw images directly:
cdrecord -v dev=0,0,0 speed=x image.iso

[tralala]

Thank you! Anyway this is the last solution. I hope i can fix this problem because there is too much data that i can't loose. I must fix this, because i need to use my d drive from windows. C drive it's full and i have to work. This is the big problem. I can't understand why linux changed the system id and now i can't change it back and so my partition it's hidden. Manny thanx anyway for your help!