Drive letter changed

[Wasim]

Hey everyone. i just installed windows xp and it has installed to drive f:

so now my setup is like this

c: is my files and music

d: is where the backups are

e: is the cd drive

f: is windows xp installed

how do i go about reverting windows xp to be installed in the place of c: and then all others move 1 letter ahead.

This is real odd and has happened the first time ever and i have installed windows over a dozen time

[pthomas]

Just boot off of CD and select the correct partition.

How come you use different partitions to divide stuff up? Thats what folders are for! Making many partitions like that will tend to slow things down after each one starts to fill up.

While I'm at it. Backing up data to another partition on the same hdd is quite pointless when the hdd fails. Unless you format the system partition quite often and only use it to bring stuff back over afterwards.

Another thought just sunk in. Are these c,d,e and f drives phyisically different drives or are they partitions like my thought above was suggesting? If they are different drives, then you need to put the f drive in place of the c drive in the system (yes, I'm talking about unplugging the drive and movin' it!).

Example:

Primary Master -> C

Primary Slave partition 1 -> d

Primary slave partition 2 -> e

secondary maseter -> f

Just because you install windows on the secondary master, that does not make it drive C. The drive letters start always on the Primary master drive and go down from there.

Does this clear things up? Other questions?

Paul

[Jito463]

Anothing to keep in mind, if you have any USB card readers or ZIP drives in the machine, it will take priority over Windows for drive letter. Stupid, I know. But it's true. If that happened, your only option is another format/reload without the ZIP/USB reader plugged in.

[Wasim]

Just boot off of CD and select the correct partition.

How come you use different partitions to divide stuff up? Thats what folders are for! Making many partitions like that will tend to slow things down after each one starts to fill up.

While I'm at it. Backing up data to another partition on the same hdd is quite pointless when the hdd fails. Unless you format the system partition quite often and only use it to bring stuff back over afterwards.

Another thought just sunk in. Are these c,d,e and f drives phyisically different drives or are they partitions like my thought above was suggesting? If they are different drives, then you need to put the f drive in place of the c drive in the system (yes, I'm talking about unplugging the drive and movin' it!).

Example:

Primary Master -> C

Primary Slave partition 1 -> d

Primary slave partition 2 -> e

secondary maseter -> f

Just because you install windows on the secondary master, that does not make it drive C. The drive letters start always on the Primary master drive and go down from there.

Does this clear things up? Other questions?

Paul

well like you said i tend to reinstall quite reguraly so thats why music and others are held on other partitions. If i was to reinstall and select the c partition that would mean eveything on that partition would be complety wiped out. and the backup partion would still say as the second partion.

i would like it like this:

c: windows

d: folders music

e: backup

any ideas how that can be done?

[N1K]

Ok, transfer the contents from C: to D: drive if you have enough available free space..

If not, try to compress contents on drive D: to gain some extra space..

If you can't do that, that's probably because D: drive is formated with FAT32 file system, in that case you should convert your partition to NTFS..

Now you can boot from CD and then delete partitions C: and F:

You can install windows on C: partition..

When windows installation finishes you can use disk manager to convert your drive letters as you like or recreate partitions..

You also can use some third party software like Partition Magic 8.0..

[Wasim]

well partition c: is 9.31 gb and is ntfs. i can format it no problems and then isntall windows to that. however i do not want to delete or lose the 38.6 gb fat 32 partition which has backups etc.

so i have 2 9.31gb partitions

and one 38.6

is it possible to get the 9.31 gb hdds to be c: and d: and then the big one to be e: with out deleting partitions

[N1K]

When you delete those two partitions before windows setup begins you can create a C: partition and enter the size you want (C:and F: free space).

Once you install Windows XP you can use Partition Magic to resize your partitions as you like..

[Wasim]

so should i delete the 2 9.31 gb partitions ?

[N1K]

Which drive letters this partitions have?

[Wasim]

well windows is currently f: and the other music folders partition is c:.

however i have put in the windows cd and run the cd when the computer is turned on. when i go to new installation it recognizes that windows is installe at c: and the other 9.31 is d: and the big partition is e:. if i was to reinstall i guess that they would revert to what it says when i run the install cd.

[jaclaz]

The prob here is what type of partition they are.

The C : letter corresponds to First Primary Active Partition.

It is not recommended to have more than one Primary partition.

From what you posted it is likely that you are set like this:

C : Primary Partition

Big extended partition containing these logical Volumes:

D:

E:

F:

If the above is true, you can just reinstall XP on C:

(there must be enough space, of course)

You must NOT delete any partition, if the drive is set as above, you actually boot from C: where reside Boot.ini, NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM, then the boot.ini points to the F: volume.

jaclaz

[raza]

hey u can even change drive letters so that u don't need to re install the windows.If you want the win to be in c drive just right click the my comp and choose manage a new window will open in that click on storage and then on disk management.From here just right click any drive and change its letters to what u want.

[N1K]

hey u can even change drive letters so that u don't need to re install the windows.If you want the win to be in c drive just right click the my comp and choose manage a new window will open in that click on storage and then on disk management.From here just right click any drive and change its letters to what u want.

You can not modify drive letter on system or boot volume...

Do as I said in the first reply to you..

[Wasim]

i just reinstalled and all is well now , i got the drives in order. thanks guys for the help, much appreciated

[xolox]

Good you got everything sorted out Wasim! Now for my problem

I hope someone will still answer my (related) question...

I use a bracket with a 80GB disk for college, and as storage for some of my files. But because I have to boot from this drive when at school, it's set as master. So I should change the boot-order for my pc, in order to be able to boot from my own disk, the primary slave.

So when I bought it, I just installed the bracket, and all was good. It actually worked without problems!

Then I did a clean install of Windows 2000 Pro SP4. With the removable harddrive inserted. And now, the partition Windows resides is the D: drive. No problem. Or so I thought at first glance. Then I found out quite some setups and configurations use hardcoded installation-path's! DoH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I'd like to reinstall Windows @ my C: drive. Is this as simple as removing the disk in the bracket, then installing, and then use the bracket again?

Or not?

Hope I've been clear in describing the situation...