Changing hard drive name/letter

[fear]

I just replaced a PC with a new Hard drive, and installed windows XP.
The drive works fine but noticed that it somehow became drive E:
instead of drive C: There are no other drives named C:, only the A:
and D: (CD and floppy drives).

I've tried to rename it but no matter what I enter at adds the (E at
the end of the name. I don't know if this is really a problem or not,
everything seems to work fine so far, but I'd like to change it just
for the sake of consistancy. I'm not sure what to do about it though.
How did this happen and how do I change it now?

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

You can't change it without starting from scratch. Normally this problem
occurs when a zip or tape drive is attached to the system during setup. The
solution is to detach the drive while running setup. But either way, you
still have to start from scratch, and this includes deleting the existing
system partition on the drive and creating a new one.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Andre Da Costa]

See link to change drive letters:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307844&sd=tech

Andre

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Andre, you still can't change the system drive letter. Any drive but the
system.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Does not work on the volume/partition that contains the system installation.
In fact, it is the first key point made in the article.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I forgot to disconnect an internal drive once and wound up with F: as the
system drive. I researched it and there is no way to change the system
drive letter. Redo the system now. There are some programs that will not
work because they look specifically for drive C:.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

One note, there is a procedure for reverting a drive letter on a system
drive that has gotten changed sometime after the installation of Windows.
However, before you get your hopes up, that procedure does not work if the
drive letter has not been changed since Windows was installed. Your
situation is one where the drive letter was not what you wanted in the first
place.

 

[fear]

I don't understand how to make sure it sets it at C in the first place
then. I've installed many new drives/Windows systems, and never knew
that it was an option really or I never paid attention. There is only
a CD and floppy drive attached to the PC besides this hard drive. If I
start over, does that mean re-installing windows?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Yes. You must delete the partition and then create a new one in the
available space (just follow the onscreen instructions). Sooner or later
programs that are hard coded to put temp files or insist on being installed
on C: instead of %system% will not work. Do it now before it becomes a
bigger hassle.