C drive is E drive..can't change it. Help!

[JerryB]

I had my first system crash with WIN XP(after 2 years of
flawless running). In order to keep any remaining data on
my hard drives, I installed a new one, on its own cable
in position "0" "master"...in other words, drive "C". The
old drives were on a raid controller (striped). After
installing XP and rebooting to collect my data from the
old drives, I found that my boot drive (the new one) was
now "E". I removed the old drives and turned off the raid
controller, but it is still "E". Computer management
won't let me change it to "C" because it is the boot
drive. It wouldn't normally be a problem, but some of my
equipment (HP) will only install to "C" drive (no options
to change). Any ideas on how to change the drive back
to "C"? Can Windows setup "repair" the install and fix
this problem without losing my data? I would back it up
to DVD, but the backup program wants to see "C" drive too!

 

[gezerglide]

I've had this happen too. It seems that just because a drive is installed to
primary ide master, that doesn't necessarily mean it will be C: When you
installed windows again, it sees your existing install and still considers
that as C: hence the new install is assigned the next available drive
letter. Go here http://www.dougknox.com/tips/xp_drive_letters.htm and check
out the bottom link on the page.