Clean install, System disk drive letter = F?

[KWW]

Never had this one happen... until now.

Decided that I wanted a clean start. Saved settings from existing drives.
Removed Master and Slave drives from primary IDE channel and put in new
disk. Booted using XP Pro SP2 CD and partitioned (into two) and formatted
(first of the two) in non-Quick format. It took a long time so I left it...
came back and it was waiting for input to install XP. Went through the menus
and it kicked off the install. When finished and things started up, "C" was
assigned to my Iomega ZIP (USB) drive. "D" was the DVD/R Master on the
secondary channel and "E" was the CD/RW slave drive on the secondary
channel. Nothing was in the ZIP drive unit during the install.

I could change all of the drive letters but the "F" drive, which is what the
system disk is being called. I couldn't use the disk management utility and
also could not use the Command window (DOS) utility to change it.

Anyone ever heard of this happening? Solutions? If I have to reinstall and
start over again, how do I keep it from happening again (disconnect the USB
devices first)?
TIA

ASUS A7V333 mobo (latest BIOS) (not using RAID)
512 MB PC2700
Windows XP SP2.
Sony DVD/R and Sony CD/RW
New drive: Toshiba 250 Gb Deskstar/ATA100 IDE
using built-in 10/100 ethernet
Had the following USB devices connected: Scanner, Iomega ZIP 100

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Drive Letters Change Unexpectedly When You Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326683&Product=winxp

You'll have to physically disconnect whatever drive is shown as the current C: drive,
perform a "clean install", then reconnect that drive.

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

Note: If you are unable to activate Windows XP again via the internet,
then select the option to "activate by telephone".

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------­----------------

:

| Never had this one happen... until now.
|
| Decided that I wanted a clean start. Saved settings from existing drives.
| Removed Master and Slave drives from primary IDE channel and put in new
| disk. Booted using XP Pro SP2 CD and partitioned (into two) and formatted
| (first of the two) in non-Quick format. It took a long time so I left it...
| came back and it was waiting for input to install XP. Went through the menus
| and it kicked off the install. When finished and things started up, "C" was
| assigned to my Iomega ZIP (USB) drive. "D" was the DVD/R Master on the
| secondary channel and "E" was the CD/RW slave drive on the secondary
| channel. Nothing was in the ZIP drive unit during the install.
|
| I could change all of the drive letters but the "F" drive, which is what the
| system disk is being called. I couldn't use the disk management utility and
| also could not use the Command window (DOS) utility to change it.
|
| Anyone ever heard of this happening? Solutions? If I have to reinstall and
| start over again, how do I keep it from happening again (disconnect the USB
| devices first)?
| TIA
|
| ASUS A7V333 mobo (latest BIOS) (not using RAID)
| 512 MB PC2700
| Windows XP SP2.
| Sony DVD/R and Sony CD/RW
| New drive: Toshiba 250 Gb Deskstar/ATA100 IDE
| using built-in 10/100 ethernet
| Had the following USB devices connected: Scanner, Iomega ZIP 100

 

[Tom Porterfield]

Never had this one happen... until now.

Decided that I wanted a clean start. Saved settings from existing drives.
Removed Master and Slave drives from primary IDE channel and put in new
disk. Booted using XP Pro SP2 CD and partitioned (into two) and formatted
(first of the two) in non-Quick format. It took a long time so I left it...
came back and it was waiting for input to install XP. Went through the menus
and it kicked off the install. When finished and things started up, "C" was
assigned to my Iomega ZIP (USB) drive. "D" was the DVD/R Master on the
secondary channel and "E" was the CD/RW slave drive on the secondary
channel. Nothing was in the ZIP drive unit during the install.

I could change all of the drive letters but the "F" drive, which is what the
system disk is being called. I couldn't use the disk management utility and
also could not use the Command window (DOS) utility to change it.

Anyone ever heard of this happening? Solutions? If I have to reinstall and
start over again, how do I keep it from happening again (disconnect the USB
devices first)?
TIA

Yes, it is a somewhat common occurrence with your type of setup.
Disconnect the zip drive and then reinstall.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Windows
http://support.teloep.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.

 

[toronado455]

Never had this one happen... until now.

Decided that I wanted a clean start. Saved settings from existing drives.
Removed Master and Slave drives from primary IDE channel and put in new
disk. Booted using XP Pro SP2 CD and partitioned (into two) and formatted
(first of the two) in non-Quick format. It took a long time so I left it...
came back and it was waiting for input to install XP. Went through the menus
and it kicked off the install. When finished and things started up, "C" was
assigned to my Iomega ZIP (USB) drive. "D" was the DVD/R Master on the
secondary channel and "E" was the CD/RW slave drive on the secondary
channel. Nothing was in the ZIP drive unit during the install.

I could change all of the drive letters but the "F" drive, which is what the
system disk is being called. I couldn't use the disk management utility and
also could not use the Command window (DOS) utility to change it.

Anyone ever heard of this happening? Solutions? If I have to reinstall and
start over again, how do I keep it from happening again (disconnect the USB
devices first)?
TIA

ASUS A7V333 mobo (latest BIOS) (not using RAID)
512 MB PC2700
Windows XP SP2.
Sony DVD/R and Sony CD/RW
New drive: Toshiba 250 Gb Deskstar/ATA100 IDE
using built-in 10/100 ethernet
Had the following USB devices connected: Scanner, Iomega ZIP 100

I did a clean install of Windows and got some similar results. This is
on a PC with 2 hard drives - a Master which is 80GB, and a Slave which
is 250GB - both of which have single partitions. I installed Windows on
the 80GB Master. I would think that Windows would have given the Master
and boot volume the letter "C" but it did not. It assigned letter "F"
to the boot volume and "C" to the 250GB slave drive. Which makes no
sense to me.

I guess I'll unplug the slave, reformat and reinstall Windows, then
reconnect the slave.

Why would Windows assign "C" to anything other than the Windows boot
volume?

 

[Mike Fields]

I did a clean install of Windows and got some similar results. This is
on a PC with 2 hard drives - a Master which is 80GB, and a Slave which
is 250GB - both of which have single partitions. I installed Windows
on
the 80GB Master. I would think that Windows would have given the
Master
and boot volume the letter "C" but it did not. It assigned letter "F"
to the boot volume and "C" to the 250GB slave drive. Which makes no
sense to me.

I guess I'll unplug the slave, reformat and reinstall Windows, then
reconnect the slave.

Why would Windows assign "C" to anything other than the Windows boot
volume?

I believe it is because it found the other drive first. I forget
exactly where I have seen it, but I have seen the comment
a number of times to the effect that you should have all other
drives disconnected when you boot the first time so it gets the
boot drive correctly assigned. Once it assigns the boot drive
some other letter it is a pain to change all the links it sets up.
This also applies if you restore a drive from an image you
made -- when the restore is done, shut the system down,
remove all drives except the primary drive you just restored
and boot. Many people forget that, restore a drive, reboot
and end up with some other letter assigned to the drive.

mikey

 

[Andy]

I did a clean install of Windows and got some similar results. This is
on a PC with 2 hard drives - a Master which is 80GB, and a Slave which
is 250GB - both of which have single partitions. I installed Windows on
the 80GB Master. I would think that Windows would have given the Master
and boot volume the letter "C" but it did not. It assigned letter "F"
to the boot volume and "C" to the 250GB slave drive. Which makes no
sense to me.

It would if you read and understand this: BASIC Disk - Drive Letter
Assignment Rules

I guess I'll unplug the slave, reformat and reinstall Windows, then
reconnect the slave.

All you have to do is run Windows XP setup again and choose new
install. Since the partition on the first drive already exists, C will
be assigned to it. Select this partition to install to, and format the
partition.

 

[toronado455]

It would if you read and understand this: BASIC Disk - Drive Letter
Assignment Rules


All you have to do is run Windows XP setup again and choose new
install. Since the partition on the first drive already exists, C will
be assigned to it. Select this partition to install to, and format the
partition.

I'm going to reformat/partition both of the drives first (using the
Seagate utility). Then reinstall Windows with the slave unplugged. I
don't want to risk having this problem again.

But I have another question: I already activated Windows. Is that going
to be a problem when I reinstall?

 

[frodo]

this is not uncommon, and is not a real problem, the system will still
work just fine. Mine has been E: (boot.ini) and F: (\windows) since
day-one and has never been a problem.

in fact, some security wonks like it when the system disk isn't C:, since
some dumb spyware assumes it always will be. [Then again, some (very) old
legitimate software may also assume so, but I've never encountered any
issues in 3 years.]

----

there is a purported get-around to this: when XP Setup asks you to
initially choose/make a partition, do so and THEN DELETE ALL THE
PARTITIONS and recreate it again. For some reason this causes it to
assign that new partition C:.

I would also leave that ZIP Drive disconnected until after XP is up and
running. XP treats zip drives just like any other IDE drive. Just connect
the one CD Drive and the one HD (or raid array). Plug everything else in
after XP setup has worked.