Why does XP play 'swap the drive letter' game?

[Guest]

This has always annoyed me:

My current setup is to have win+progs on the C: partition and files on D:
partition. But - like most of us - the XP OS is only stable for about 3-6
months b4 a clean reformat and re-install is needed (it ain't MS bashing -
its fact - plain and simple).

What really irks me is that when it is time to do the re-install and u get
to the step where XP asks u which partition u want to place XP on - my C:
drive gets swapped with the D: drive letter and my D: drive gets C:...o_O

This of course means that the only way to force XP to default the OS install
to C: is to delete the D: partiton (all my files go 'poof') and THEN my
previous C: partition gets defaulted to C:. If there was only some way to
swap the drive letters during the install *sigh*.

Surely i'm not the ony one to have come across this. I dearly hope there is
a solution to this infernal game of 'swap the drive letter'...

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

See below.

This has always annoyed me:

My current setup is to have win+progs on the C: partition and files on D:
partition. But - like most of us - the XP OS is only stable for about 3-6
months b4 a clean reformat and re-install is needed (it ain't MS bashing -
its fact - plain and simple).

This may be a fact with you but not with everyone else.
Most of my own machines and those of my clients - about
200 in total - remain stable for years. It all depends on
the stuff you download from the internet and install on
your PC. Some of it is bad news for Windows.

What really irks me is that when it is time to do the re-install and u get
to the step where XP asks u which partition u want to place XP on - my C:
drive gets swapped with the D: drive letter and my D: drive gets C:...o_O

This of course means that the only way to force XP to default the OS install
to C: is to delete the D: partiton (all my files go 'poof') and THEN my
previous C: partition gets defaulted to C:. If there was only some way to
swap the drive letters during the install *sigh*.

If you disconnect all USB devices then WinXP will install
by default on drive C:. All of my systems have two partitions
and none suffer from the problem you describe on the rare
occasion that I need to install the OS.

Surely i'm not the ony one to have come across this. I dearly hope there is
a solution to this infernal game of 'swap the drive letter'...

Instead of re-installing Windows, why don't you take a snapshot,
then use this snapshot to restore a damaged installation? Much,
much quicker and even free if you use Acronis DriveImage 7!
http://www.acronis.com/mag/DVhbcjdI

 

[Guest]

For every one of my XP installs (7 and counting) this has been the case.
There can be no hardware issue - its a simple HD with 2 partitions. Yet XP
does this EVERY time. I cannot believe this is unique to me alone. Maybe it
has something to do with Western Digital HD's - i don't know.

Also, in regards to length of stability - it has been my and and many others
i have spoken too (IT proffessionals etc) that XP needs to be re-installed
every 6 months or so - regardless of form of use, due to file corruption etc
(i experience this 1st hand often no matter what PC i'm on). Its a fact of XP
life and i accept that. Thats not why i'm posting and that is not what u
should be replying to. Its the drive letter swapping that infuriates me.
There is no cause for it to occur other than MS programing.

As for the snapshot idea...i'll look into it, thnx. But from memory i don't
believe that is as stable as an actual install - but thats debateble.

P.S. I never have nething connected to a PC whilst i'm installing any OS.

 

[Guest]

Well when you pay people chump change, you can not expect to receive decent
service, you get what you pay for, computer companies do not want to dish out
money for good help so again you et what you pay for. I agree with Pegasus,
XP is extreamly stable program.
You can not do an installation (I believe) over an existing XP partition,
this is why it shows the d: drive as the install partition, you CAN do a
repair install on your C: partition, do a search in this thread on "how to".

Make sure you download all necessary drivers for your system FROM the
Manufacture, ie. chipset drivers, video and so forth.

Good Luck,

 

[frodo]

to avoid "weird disk letter assignments", always disconnect all
"unneccessary" devices when running XP Setup. A USB flash-drive or a ZIP
drive may end up grabbing the letter C: if you have them connected during
XP Setup. It's best to have JUST the HD being installed-to and the
optical drive w/ the CD connected, on their final interfaces (don't move
'em aftrwards). Once XP boots up fine, powerdown and connect the rest of
the drives, one by one. Use Disk Manager to check their letter assignment
and change it if required. Reboot and confirm, then do the next drive.
Disk Manager SHOULD rememeber the letter you manually/explicitly assigned,
even for a removable drive (like an external USB Drive), and reserve that
letter forevermore; when the drive is plugged in it should get it's old
letter back, NOT the next available letter (this works w/ iPods too). [I
usually assign these sort of devices a drive letter near the end of the
list, so they will always stay the same.]

Also, I have found that sometimes XP Setup has difficulty w/ older
partition tables on HDs. I typcially use XP Setup to 1) delete any
existing partitions, 2) make one single install-to primary partition, 3)
then immeadiately delete that partition and remake it. Then install to
that partition. Wait till XP is up and running and use it's Disk Manager
to make further partitions. [I know it sounds paranoid, but I read this
tip somewhere way back, and since using this method I have never ended up
w/ funny drive letter assignments again.] Of course if you're doing an
upgrade install you can't do this, and this is where you most often find
the system drive ending up as E: or F:. Which, by the way, is really just
fine, it does not HAVE to be C: (and some say you may actually be better
off if your system drive isn't C:, just to foil dumb hackers that assume
it is.).

Anyway, good luck!

 

[Guest]

Good computing practicies will keep a Windows system stable indefinitely.
Users who do not follow good computing practices should not be surprised at
poor performance and gradual system degredation. It "ain't" user bashing.
It's a fact-plain and simple. Even so, I have seen seriously degraded,
unstable systems brought back to life without having to format and reinstall.
(Note: Just for the record, I am an IT professional--Windows/UNIX(HP-UX)
system administrator (18 yrs) and Oracle database administrator (8 yrs).)

Getting Windows onto the right partition of the right drive is quite simple
and straightforward, and you do not have to uncable everything as one poster
suggested. I am wondering just how things are getting mixed up in your
situation.

Kind regards,
Opus

 

[Rock]

For every one of my XP installs (7 and counting) this has been the case.
There can be no hardware issue - its a simple HD with 2 partitions. Yet XP
does this EVERY time. I cannot believe this is unique to me alone. Maybe
it
has something to do with Western Digital HD's - i don't know.

Also, in regards to length of stability - it has been my and and many
others
i have spoken too (IT proffessionals etc) that XP needs to be re-installed
every 6 months or so - regardless of form of use, due to file corruption
etc
(i experience this 1st hand often no matter what PC i'm on). Its a fact of
XP
life and i accept that. Thats not why i'm posting and that is not what u
should be replying to. Its the drive letter swapping that infuriates me.
There is no cause for it to occur other than MS programing.

As for the snapshot idea...i'll look into it, thnx. But from memory i
don't
believe that is as stable as an actual install - but thats debateble.

P.S. I never have nething connected to a PC whilst i'm installing any OS.

If the XP installation is properly maintained, dodgy software is not
installed, and safe hex is practiced, it should be stable for years. The
system I'm typing this reply on is almost 5 years old. Over the past year
I have used it during Beta testing of Vista in a multi-boot configuration
with XP, installing different versions of Vista Beta, with at least two
Vista and two XP installs going at the same time. Using two internal WD
hard drives. It is also important to use quality hardware and drivers.

I have not had to reinstall XP on it. I use a drive imaging program to
regularly image the drive to two different external USB hard drives and burn
a copy to DVD occasionally.

Not sure why you mean by an image not being as good as an actual install.
An image is a sector by sector copy of the data on the drive. It is as good
as the installation. You can image it after a clean install, then after
installing all the hardware and drivers, then after all the apps are added.
Save these as archives, then image on a regular basis and keep several
iterations.

I'm not sure what Pegasus meant by Acronis Drive Image 7. There was a
Powerquest Drive Image 7 (bought out some time ago by Symantec and the
technology incorporated into Ghost 9 and above. DI7 is what I have and
still use on XP. Acronis makes Acronis True Image (currently at version
10). It works in XP and Vista (unfortunately DI won't work in Vista), can
do image and file backups, and drive cloning. Restores from images can be
done on a file basis (as with DI) or of the complete image, and subsequent
images are incremental. It is a nice program.

Combine the use of a drive imaging program with good maintenance and safe
hex, and you won't need to reinstall.

 

[Guest]

Please stop replying to 'a stable XP' such a thing is practically an
oxymoron. Face facts - there are some people who believe it better to chug
along with what they have and others who prefer to eliminate all bugs in one
fell swoop via a re-install. Heaven forbid that different people do things in
different ways.

Now onto more important matters: I didn't know that XP can't re-install onto
a previous XP partition. That would explain why my drive letter is
automatically being swapped around and the XP install wanting to land on my
docs partition. I will call MS to confirm this. If this is indeed the case,
may i just say whith complete humility....I WAS RIGHT! ^_~

That is all.

"Windows is just a virus with mouse support"

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I'm not sure what Pegasus meant by Acronis Drive Image 7. There was a
Powerquest Drive Image 7 (bought out some time ago by Symantec and the
technology incorporated into Ghost 9 and above.

It's supposed to be Acronis TrueImage 7 of course, and it is freely
downloadable from the site I quoted. Thanks for pointing this out.

 

[Rock]

It's supposed to be Acronis TrueImage 7 of course, and it is freely
downloadable from the site I quoted. Thanks for pointing this out.

NP, I thought so but I wasn't sure if there was something new.

 

[Jonny]

If the XP installation is properly maintained, dodgy software is not
installed, and safe hex is practiced, it should be stable for years. The
system I'm typing this reply on is almost 5 years old. Over the past
year I have used it during Beta testing of Vista in a multi-boot
configuration with XP, installing different versions of Vista Beta, with
at least two Vista and two XP installs going at the same time. Using two
internal WD hard drives. It is also important to use quality hardware and
drivers.

I have not had to reinstall XP on it. I use a drive imaging program to
regularly image the drive to two different external USB hard drives and
burn a copy to DVD occasionally.

Not sure why you mean by an image not being as good as an actual install.
An image is a sector by sector copy of the data on the drive. It is as
good as the installation. You can image it after a clean install, then
after installing all the hardware and drivers, then after all the apps are
added. Save these as archives, then image on a regular basis and keep
several iterations.

I'm not sure what Pegasus meant by Acronis Drive Image 7. There was a
Powerquest Drive Image 7 (bought out some time ago by Symantec and the
technology incorporated into Ghost 9 and above. DI7 is what I have and
still use on XP. Acronis makes Acronis True Image (currently at version
10). It works in XP and Vista (unfortunately DI won't work in Vista), can
do image and file backups, and drive cloning. Restores from images can be
done on a file basis (as with DI) or of the complete image, and subsequent
images are incremental. It is a nice program.

Combine the use of a drive imaging program with good maintenance and safe
hex, and you won't need to reinstall.

Same philosophy here. Cept, DI 7.0 is acting goofy lately with its
verfication after imaging. In some cases, will indicate an internal
structure error followed by an EA#. The image file is deleted automatically
in this case. Typically when saving to one of two other ide hard drives.
Lately when saving to a firewire drive, the verification is good but the
restoration results XP not recognizing the partition filesystem at some
point early a startup. Typically, I have DI check the filesystem after
restore process, restore the disk signature and mbr options during restore
image process.
Don't know if its DI itself, the OS, net framework causing all this during
imaging process. Or some MS update or 3rd party app update affecting the DI
working process.
My only resort at this time is to clean install XP w/sp2, followed by DI 7.0
and observe results. If same, will assume its hardware. If not and working
fine, will assume software somewhere glitched or other software is affecting
it.

 

[Rock]

in

Same philosophy here. Cept, DI 7.0 is acting goofy lately with its
verfication after imaging. In some cases, will indicate an internal
structure error followed by an EA#. The image file is deleted
automatically in this case. Typically when saving to one of two other ide
hard drives. Lately when saving to a firewire drive, the verification is
good but the restoration results XP not recognizing the partition
filesystem at some point early a startup. Typically, I have DI check the
filesystem after restore process, restore the disk signature and mbr
options during restore image process.
Don't know if its DI itself, the OS, net framework causing all this during
imaging process. Or some MS update or 3rd party app update affecting the
DI working process.
My only resort at this time is to clean install XP w/sp2, followed by DI
7.0 and observe results. If same, will assume its hardware. If not and
working fine, will assume software somewhere glitched or other software is
affecting it.

Interesting, thanks for the update. I haven't had to do a partition or
drive restore with DI for some time now, though not experiencing any
problems with making the images or verifying them. I also do a Complete PC
backup under Vista Ultimate RTM which is set up in a multi boot with XP, so
backup is covered two different ways. If you can post back with the outcome
of your issue.