How do I activate my sdb5 partition and have it stay active continually.

[Steven Vollom]

With any luck, my new computer will be functional in a week or two.

I am trying to fix this one; I want to give it to an acquaintance who doesn't 
have a computer and can't afford one.  It will only hold 1gb of ram, so I 
will replace the defective 512mb stick.  Still, I would like it to work 
properly for him, if possible.

A last resort is to format and start over, after the new computer is running 
smoothly.  I haven't been willing to shut down for the length of time 
required to reinstall the OS and partition the drives, and I haven't had a 
place to put the data anyway.  I can't think of anything else right now that 
might give you hints of what may be the problem.

I could send you a screenprint of the drive layout, but it takes too much 
space to put on the list; I would have to direct it to your email address.  
Thank you for your willingness to try to solve the problem.  I really want to 
help this guy.

Steven