Default Drive letter is E: not C:

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Guest

I had my computer built by a friend and he installed a Serial ATA drive. He
installed the operating system, Windows XP Prof, and set up the drive. The
default drive is E:. He could not figure out why he could't get it to be
drive C: and told me it will make no difference but as the time went by, I
have had some issues with the drive letter. Some software would not install
because it was looking for the C: drive and now I had to move a program and
all the files to another computer because the software will not work
correctly but all my data files are being seen as dive E:. It would takes me
weekks to re-path all these files. My question is ... Can I change the drive
letter to C:? And...if I can, will ALL my files and programs be accessible?
Will the paths change automatically or will all be lost? If I could
re-install everything I would but I don't know how and I am in the middle of
my busiest time of the year with my business. I need my computer to design
my cards and contact my customers as my business is web based. Can anyone
help me figure this out? I am so frustrated with this.
 
Diane said:
I had my computer built by a friend and he installed a Serial ATA
drive. He installed the operating system, Windows XP Prof, and set
up the drive. The default drive is E:. He could not figure out
why he could't get it to be drive C: and told me it will make no
difference but as the time went by, I have had some issues with the
drive letter. Some software would not install because it was
looking for the C: drive and now I had to move a program and all
the files to another computer because the software will not work
correctly but all my data files are being seen as dive E:. It
would takes me weekks to re-path all these files. My question is
... Can I change the drive letter to C:? And...if I can, will ALL
my files and programs be accessible? Will the paths change
automatically or will all be lost? If I could re-install
everything I would but I don't know how and I am in the middle of
my busiest time of the year with my business. I need my computer
to design my cards and contact my customers as my business is web
based. Can anyone help me figure this out? I am so frustrated
with this.

Change it? No.
Make a SUBST to it so it is also C? Sure.

The only way to get it back to C and make sure everything will work is a
reinstall from scratch and make sure you have no external hard drives and/or
internal ZIP/other removable media (excluding CD/DVD) connected when you
reinstall.
 
You mean...open it up and rebuild it? I can not do that....what is the other
option and will it work for everything, even installing software. What about
all my original data...will that be re-directed?
 
Diane said:
I had my computer built by a friend and he installed a Serial ATA
drive. He installed the operating system, Windows XP Prof, and
set up the drive. The default drive is E:. He could not figure
out why he could't get it to be drive C: and told me it will make
no difference but as the time went by, I have had some issues
with the drive letter. Some software would not install because
it was looking for the C: drive and now I had to move a program
and all the files to another computer because the software will
not work correctly but all my data files are being seen as dive
E:. It would takes me weekks to re-path all these files. My
question is ... Can I change the drive letter to C:? And...if I
can, will ALL my files and programs be accessible? Will the paths
change automatically or will all be lost? If I could re-install
everything I would but I don't know how and I am in the middle of
my busiest time of the year with my business. I need my computer
to design my cards and contact my customers as my business is web
based. Can anyone help me figure this out? I am so frustrated
with this.
Change it? No.
Make a SUBST to it so it is also C? Sure.

The only way to get it back to C and make sure everything will
work is a reinstall from scratch and make sure you have no
external hard drives and/or internal ZIP/other removable media
(excluding CD/DVD) connected when you reinstall.
You mean...open it up and rebuild it? I can not do that....what is
the other option and will it work for everything, even installing
software. What about all my original data...will that be
re-directed?

I said you could create a SUBST to make it C...
That will not resolve all issues - but might squeeze you through until you
can rebuild from scratch.

C:\>subst /?
Associates a path with a drive letter.

SUBST [drive1: [drive2:]path]
SUBST drive1: /D

drive1: Specifies a virtual drive to which you want to assign a
path.
[drive2:]path Specifies a physical drive and path you want to assign to
a virtual drive.
/D Deletes a substituted (virtual) drive.

Type SUBST with no parameters to display a list of current virtual drives.
 
Hi Diane,
Go to control panel, look for computer management, then disk
management, all disks are shown.
Whatever is currently set to C ! change it to something not currently
used, Right click on this and you will see ,CHANGE PATHS ETC
Now C is available to use again, Right click on E and change back to
C.
Having done this , reboot and check the BIOS order if necessary change
to C

Regards
deejaydee
 
Hi Diane,
Go to control panel, look for computer management, then disk
management, all disks are shown.
Whatever is currently set to C ! change it to something not currently
used, Right click on this and you will see ,CHANGE PATHS ETC
Now C is available to use again, Right click on E and change back to
C.
Having done this , reboot and check the BIOS order if necessary change
to C

Regards
deejaydee
 
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