Designating Drive During Installation

[Guest]

I use two physical hard drives in my system - one for the operating system
and programs and one for data. When I initially installed XP Pro, I somehow
did not install it to C: but instead the system drive was designated as F:
My system drive recently started failing so I installed XP Pro on a new hard
drive, with hopes that it would now be designated as C: When I started the
installation, the installation program showed my data drive as C: I
continued with the install and, sure enough, the system drive was not C: (it
was I: this time).

Within Windows, I changed the data drive's letter from C: to K: I tried the
install again. However, once again, the data drive was recognized as C: by
the installation CD.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Dave Patrick]

Be aware that Microsoft defines the boot partition for the partition where
the operating system is installed, while the system partition is the first
primary active partition (where the boot sector resides)

If you multi-boot then this interpretation may change as seen through *that*
particular operating system that's currently running.

Sounds like you deleted/recreated the partition during text mode portion of
setup causing the system partition to shift.

Setup Changes Drive Letters After a Partition Is Deleted and Reinstalled
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=225025



Drive letter assignments

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=51978
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=234048

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
|I use two physical hard drives in my system - one for the operating system
| and programs and one for data. When I initially installed XP Pro, I
somehow
| did not install it to C: but instead the system drive was designated as F:
| My system drive recently started failing so I installed XP Pro on a new
hard
| drive, with hopes that it would now be designated as C: When I started
the
| installation, the installation program showed my data drive as C: I
| continued with the install and, sure enough, the system drive was not C:
(it
| was I: this time).
|
| Within Windows, I changed the data drive's letter from C: to K: I tried
the
| install again. However, once again, the data drive was recognized as C:
by
| the installation CD.
|
| Any ideas?
|
| Thanks,
| Steve

 

[Guest]

Are you suggesting deleting the current C: partition? The problem is that C:
contains all of my data. Also, I tried installing XP after disconnecting my
data drive. However, XP still did not install to C:

 

[Dave Patrick]

No, did you read the articles? What drive letter of what disk does Disk
Management show as 'System'? and 'Boot'?

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Are you suggesting deleting the current C: partition? The problem is that
C:
| contains all of my data. Also, I tried installing XP after disconnecting
my
| data drive. However, XP still did not install to C:

 

[Guest]

"I" (the XP drive) is shown as system drive. I did not see any designation
as "boot."

 

[Dave Patrick]

Also tell us the partition arrangement for both drives and whether they're
primary or extended.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Guest]

Neither physical drive is partitioned. The following applies to both drives:
Layout - Partition
Type - Basic
File System - NFTS

Status for drive I: "Healthy (System)"
Status for drive K: "Healthy"

 

[Dave Patrick]

Are you planning to reinstall the OS again? If so change the "data" drive
letter again to something else.

Then boot the Windows XP install CD-Rom. Setup inspects your computer's
hardware configuration and then begins to install the Setup and driver
files. When the Windows XP Professional screen appears, press ENTER to set
up Windows XP Professional.

(Note: If your drive controller is not natively supported then you'll want
to boot the Windows XP CD-Rom. Then *F6* very early and very important (at
setup is inspecting your system) in the setup to prevent drive controller
detection, and select S to specify additional drivers. Then later you'll be
prompted to insert the manufacturer supplied Windows XP driver for your
drive controller in drive "A")

Read the license agreement, and then press the F8 key to accept the terms of
the license agreement and continue the installation.

When the Windows XP Professional Setup screen appears, all the existing
partitions and the unpartitioned spaces are listed for each physical hard
disk. Use the ARROW keys to select the "I" partition Press D to delete the
partition, If you press D to delete an existing partition, you must then
press L (or press ENTER, and then press L if it is the System partition) to
confirm that you want to delete the partition. Then press F3 to exit setup.

Next boot with a win98 startup disk, run fdisk and create a new primary
(don't format it) and mark it as the active partition. Then boot the Windows
XP install CD-Rom and choose to format this new partition (NTFS recommended)
and install Windows here.

Be sure to apply SP2 or at least these two below to your new install before
connecting to any network. Internet included. (sasser, msblast)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...be-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| "I" (the XP drive) is shown as system drive. I did not see any
designation
| as "boot."

 

[Dave Patrick]

That makes it easier. Just disconnect the "data" drive then follow these
steps.

To do a clean install, boot the Windows XP install CD-Rom. Setup inspects
your computer's hardware configuration and then begins to install the Setup
and driver files. When the Windows XP Professional screen appears, press
ENTER to set up Windows XP Professional.

(Note: If your drive controller is not natively supported then you'll want
to boot the Windows XP CD-Rom. Then *F6* very early and very important (at
setup is inspecting your system) in the setup to prevent drive controller
detection, and select S to specify additional drivers. Then later you'll be
prompted to insert the manufacturer supplied Windows XP driver for your
drive controller in drive "A")

Read the license agreement, and then press the F8 key to accept the terms of
the license agreement and continue the installation.

When the Windows XP Professional Setup screen appears, all the existing
partitions and the unpartitioned spaces are listed for each physical hard
disk. Use the ARROW keys to select the partitions Press D to delete an
existing partition, If you press D to delete an existing partition, you must
then press L (or press ENTER, and then press L if it is the System
partition) to confirm that you want to delete the partition. Repeat this
step for each of the existing partitions When all the partitions are deleted
press F3 to exit setup, (to avoid unexpected drive letter assignments with
your new install) then restart the pc then when you get to this point in
setup again select the unpartitioned space, and then press C to create a new
partition and specify the size (if required). Windows will by default use
all available space.

Be sure to apply SP2 or at least these two below to your new install before
connecting to any network. Internet included. (sasser, msblast)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...be-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx



--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Neither physical drive is partitioned. The following applies to both
drives:
| Layout - Partition
| Type - Basic
| File System - NFTS
|
| Status for drive I: "Healthy (System)"
| Status for drive K: "Healthy"

 

[Guest]

Deleting the partition worked. Thanks for your help.

 

[Dave Patrick]

You're welcome.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Deleting the partition worked. Thanks for your help.