[sf-lug] an embarrassing question about partitions

[jim]

   i'm sorry to put this question to you, but 
i'm stuck. it has to do with linux, obliquely. 

   i was trying to put ubuntu on a dell inspiron 
1545 laptop. i began by ensuring the windows cds 
were available, then i wiped out windows and 
reformatted the hard drive (...skipping some sad 
parts of the tale...) so that it had a 40GB 
partition for windows, a 30GB partition to have 
a vfat filesystem, then some partitions for 
ubuntu. 
   then i installed windows vista on the first 
partition.  
   then i installed ubuntu, formatting the 
second partition with VFAT, and putting the / 
on the third partition (and other stuff on other
partitions. the idea is that the second partition 
should be visible to both windows and ubuntu. 
   it seemed to work: turn it on, the grub menu 
presents choices including ubuntu and windows 
vista. i chose ubuntu, all is well. 
  i restart and choose windows. windows shows 
the C: drive as well as a D:, E:, and F: drive, 
one each for DVD, CD, and USB. 

   the second partition on the disk, formatted 
with VFAT, intended to store files accessible by 
both windows and ubuntu, is not visible! 
   how to get windows to see the second partition? 
how to create a G: drive to access the second 
partition? 

   the answer is important, as the laptop owner 
had the idea to eliminate ubuntu entirely and 
revert the entire laptop to windows only. 

hopefully, with thanks, 
jim