Stubbor Drive Letters

[Ted Smith]

I have 2 physical hard drives. The first used to contain partitions C:, D:,
E:, F:, G: H:. The CD took the drive letter I:, and the DVD took the drive
letter J: Then the partitions for the second physical hard drive took the
letters, K: thru P:

Later, I merged G: & H: into E: & F on the first physical drive and expected
all the other drive letters to adjust downward. But they didn't, and
nothing I have been able to do has had any affect on changing that.

What I want to do is reinstall my system (XP-home) on to the second physical
drive because it is much larger. But when I go to do that it recognizes K:
as the first partition and asks if I want to install the system there -
which I don't, of course. How can I resolve this problem??

Ted Smith

 

[John John]

While booted to Windows use the built-in Disk Management tool and set
the "K" partition on the second disk active. Boot the computer and go
in the BIOS and TURN OFF the first hard disk (or open the pc case and
pull the power to the drive). Install Windows on the hard disk, it
should now see the active partition as partition "C". When you set the
boot order in the BIOS remember to set the second hard disk to boot
before the first one. If the hard drives are IDE disks in a
Master/Slave relationship on the same IDE controller you should put the
disk onto which you want to install Windows in the Master position.

John

 

[Ted Smith]

Thank you for your reply!

I think I have pretty much done what you suggested. K: is active, and
I have been: 1) shutting down the computer, 2) disconnecting the power
cable and data cable to the first drive, 3) reseting the jumper on the
second drive to make it primary, 4) plugging the data cable that was in the
first drive into the second drive, and finally, 5) rebooting. And it still
comes up indicating K: as the first partition when I try to install the new
system. What did I miss?

While booted to Windows use the built-in Disk Management tool and set
the "K" partition on the second disk active. Boot the computer and go
in the BIOS and TURN OFF the first hard disk (or open the pc case and
pull the power to the drive). Install Windows on the hard disk, it
should now see the active partition as partition "C". When you set the
boot order in the BIOS remember to set the second hard disk to boot
before the first one. If the hard drives are IDE disks in a
Master/Slave relationship on the same IDE controller you should put the
disk onto which you want to install Windows in the Master position.

John

 

[John John]

Do you have a Windows installation on the drive? Keep the other drive
disconnected while you try to install Windows to its new location.

John

 

[mikeyhsd]

use system management and drive management to change the drive letters.
am using vista at the moment so cannot give explicit instructions.



(e-mail address removed)



I have 2 physical hard drives. The first used to contain partitions C:, D:,
E:, F:, G: H:. The CD took the drive letter I:, and the DVD took the drive
letter J: Then the partitions for the second physical hard drive took the
letters, K: thru P:

Later, I merged G: & H: into E: & F on the first physical drive and expected
all the other drive letters to adjust downward. But they didn't, and
nothing I have been able to do has had any affect on changing that.

What I want to do is reinstall my system (XP-home) on to the second physical
drive because it is much larger. But when I go to do that it recognizes K:
as the first partition and asks if I want to install the system there -
which I don't, of course. How can I resolve this problem??

Ted Smith

 

[Guest]

First,disconnect the 2nd hd during xp installation,if you dont some files
will
end up on it.2nd,boot to xp cd,recovery,press enter for password,select
partition
letter with xp on it,typeiskPart In DiskPart,delete the partition(s)
except for xp,
or delete all,create a partition for C: to install on (create after a
delete),press ESC
key (leaving 1 active partition for xp),type:EXIT Reboot to xp cd,install
xp.You are
installing by booting to xp cd,right.....