HDD Recognition

[LarryLaser]

Tough Question.

Is there a possible way to control the Operating Systems recognition of the existing Hard Drives on your computer during the Installation??

The reason is Multiple Operating System : During the installation on my computer, the Windows Start_up recognizes the drive letters different than what I wish.

I wish to set the drive letters to my desire. Is that possible?

[Ponch]

For other than C: drive, you can change them easily after install to match your wishes.

For C: drive, you'll have to try to change Bios settings (enable/disable controlers, boot order) or physically disconnecting devices before install.

Also the C: drive will always be the active partition on the given disc.

[LarryLaser]

Sorry "Ponch"

But that is not true,

Even with all but one Hard Drive's Disconnected, On the first Install the first partition is recognized as C: but any others are randomly recognized, On the second Install the OS decides what the Drive Letter will be.

Example:

For the second OS Install, with only one HDD active (Connected) the OS calls partitions;

• 1st Partition - C: (primary)
  
• 2nd Partition - L: (primary)
  
• 3rd Partition - M: (primary)
  
• 4th Partition - E: (logical)
  
• 5th partition - I: (logical)
  

On this computer I wish to install Windows XP sp3 (x86), Windows XP sp2 (x64) and Vista Ultimate sp1 (x64).

What I wish for is

• 1st Partition - C: (primary)
  
• 2nd Partition - E: (primary)
  
• 3rd Partition - F: (primary)
  
• 4th Partition - G: (logical)
  
• 5th partition - I: (logical)
  

What I have on this system is 7 Hard Drives (Total of 3 TB's - 5 SATA's, 500 GB's ea., and 2 IDE's, 1 300GB's and 1 200GB's ea.) 1 DVD/CD burner and a Card Reader that is recognized as 4 Removable Storage drives.

Is there any possible way to control the partition recognition on any Operating System's Installation process??

Thanks for your response.

LarryLaser

[spacesurfer]

with vista clean install, it's not possible because vista will always assign itself letter c:\. you will notice that during vista install, all drives show up with drive letters unassigned.

for windows xp, you need to use a third party partition utility to set the partition as active if you want it assigned letter c:\

[Ponch]

I can't see what's "not true" in my answer beside the fact I admit it's not very precise. If you like to think partitions are "randomly recognized", I don't think so.

[LarryLaser]

Hey "Ponch"

No insult intended. Just this

For other than C: drive, you can change them easily after install to match your wishes.

On the second Install the OS decides what the Drive Letter will be.

Example:

For the second OS Install, with only one HDD active (Connected) the OS calls partitions;

* 1st Partition - C: (primary)

* 2nd Partition - L: (primary)

* 3rd Partition - M: (primary)

* 4th Partition - E: (logical)

* 5th partition - I: (logical)

After another Installation the Drive Letter Selected by the O.S. setup can not be changed.

The Problem is this:

I have multiple Computers in my home that I use all the time, and this particular one is my Main system Network PC, used to sync and backup files from all of my other systems and itself. No matter what O.S. is running (on this box) I setup the BU and Sync software I use to maintain all files. If the drives are not configured identical on all the O.S.'s the sync programs fail.

"spacesurfer" states

for windows xp, you need to use a third party partition utility to set the partition as active if you want it assigned letter c:\

I have looked into this option on a number of but have not found info that states this capability, Yet.

Any Ideas??

Thanks

LarryLaser

[EdgeOfKaos]

Not sure if this is exactly the answer you're looking for, but in Windows XP (probably Windows 2000 as well) there is a registry key for all of your mounted storage media devices at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

If you want to start from scratch, you can safely delete everything in the right panel except the (Default) and upon a reboot have Windows re-detect your devices and give each a letter accordingly to its hierarchy in the system.