Sidicas, your idea did indeed reveal the drive. Thanks. But several issues remain before i can proceed to a productive end.
c:\ ,1TB, primary hdd, holds vista 32. a previous bad episode with ubuntu installation on internal, vacant D:\, tsunamied my computer, so I will be sure to physically disengage C: before I attempt any type of os installation.
This time, there is no internal D: but rather an external dual bay JBOD, now populated with two identical hdd's. My aim is to install several *Nix'es -- Mandriva, Fedora, FreeBSD -- onto the 2 JBOD hdd's, so that I can choose which os will boot at power up, and be able to change the os without the need to power down.
It appears to me that I have several options: I can use a virtual machine; I can use the likes of Acronis Disk Director Suite http://www.acronis.com/company/inpress/2006/03-en-pcpro-diskdirector.html; and I can use the strategy delineated by Ozar (above, which I don't fully understand so it may be the Linux equivalent of the acronis software.) Additional options are gratefully solicited.
The first issue is deciding whether I should use the JBOD mode (the two hdd's are seen as 2 separate hdd's) or use the BIG mode (both hdd's are seen as a single one with the summed capacity). Next issue is whether to configure in spanned, simple or striped mode. Thus, at the first juncture, I am faced with 6 permutations: JBOD/simple; JBOD/spanning; JBOD/striped; BIG/simple; BIG/spanning; and BIG/striped. (I can't understand the difference between, eg, JBOD/spanning and BIG/simple! I feel like a sophomore in my first second organic chemistry class: no clue!)
Another issue is whether I should abandon the JBOD hardware in favor of adding D: internal and then partitioning C: and D:
and one further issue (as ridiculous as it may appear): exactly where should these softwares -- bootloaders, partitioning, .. -- be installed? on c:, one of the jbods, both of the jbods, ??
-- Fool On The Hill