bigweld Posted November 8, 2005 Share Posted November 8, 2005 hey guys I'm having a strange problem with XP pro that i have never had before.i have 2 SATA hard drives ... when i go to install windows i go through the normal questions where do i want to install etc...... well i install to the C: drive like normal but after the install is done and i get into windows to check my computer .. XP reversed the hard drive letters C: is my clean HD and D: is where it lists windows.... I did it 3 times to make sure I'm not crazy > windows keeps changing the letters.... i don't get it because during the install questions where windows asks where you want to install it lists the drives as C: & D: the way its supposed to be .... I have installed XP over 100 times with no problums... and now this !! its driveing me nuts Why would this happen >? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
net_user Posted November 8, 2005 Share Posted November 8, 2005 (edited) is it installing to the 2nd disk?if it is...unplug the 2nd disk.format the 1st disk.install windows.....(while the 2nd disk is unplugged) Edited November 8, 2005 by net_user Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigweld Posted November 8, 2005 Author Share Posted November 8, 2005 no its not installing to the 2nd drive....... unless in the dos windows install prompt it has them listed wrong..... it lists them in order as they should be... C: first and then D: .. I then Select C: to install.. it then asks what format ntfs full or quick..... i select ntft full format.. it then formats C: and begins to install windows xp........ After all that and windows is installed, i click on my computer, both of my drives are listed in order as they should.... C: then D: >>> but if i click on C: its a clean drive..... click on D: and it has the windows install on it....8(Any ideas... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
net_user Posted November 8, 2005 Share Posted November 8, 2005 did you delete all the partitions on the 1st disk before you installed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigweld Posted November 8, 2005 Author Share Posted November 8, 2005 yes i did ........ it was clean... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bezalel Posted November 8, 2005 Share Posted November 8, 2005 Which disk is the BIOS set to boot from? Where is your System partition? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigweld Posted November 9, 2005 Author Share Posted November 9, 2005 my system partition was installed to C: according to the windows install CD..... but according to windows after it boots up its the D: drive..... whats even stranger is.... i reboot the computer with the install CD in the drive as if to reinstall windows and when it says detecting previous windows installs .. it says that windows is on c: drive and if i would like to do a repair installation..... duhh i know i installed it to the C: drive but after windows boots up it seems to change the drive letter......I did not think that was possible.... I mean if the boot file points to C: and windows says its D: how could windows Boot ? KRAZZY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bezalel Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 The boot partition contains the %WINDIR% directory and can be selected during the install. The system partition contains ntldr, ntdetect.com, boot.ini and a few other files and must be on the active partition on the drive that the BIOS boots to. The setup program does not let you choose where to put these files. It would also help if I could see the contents of your boot.ini. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigweld Posted November 9, 2005 Author Share Posted November 9, 2005 Well i must report that i have fixed the issue..... by simply installing windows with just the master drive plugged in.... its an easy fix .. but it still bugs me..but i guess my real issue is that... all this came about when i could not get raid to work on my MB....Every time i tried to load xp on my raid partition it got to 34% and took a dump... blue screen of death.. the Mb tech support hasn't helped at all.. lol and very slow to replies..so i just thought OK what the heck.. ill install xp the normal way using my 2 hard drives no raid0 .. but as you can see that turned out well anyhow out of the 2 drives that i have only one is truly SATA the other has an Adapter to make it a SATA.. you know those cheep 20$ PATA>SATA adapters... so I'm thinking that maybe the raid controller don't like the adapter..... so i'm going to go tomorrow to get 2 new SATA2 drives and see if that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CriticalDamage Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 Somtimes with xp if you have zip drive installed or if you have a internal digital card reader that hooks up via the usb pins on the mobo, it will for some reason or another make those drives first and your haddrive will be the latter. I hope that made sense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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