Drive Letter Assignment when reloading Windows XP

[Guest]

My son's computer recently crashed damaging the system and/or file information, necessitating the reloading of Windows XP. This seemed like a good time to add a second larger hard drive.
When we reloaded Windows XP, it assigned the new drive (which is now the system disk) drive letter "E" and the old drive was assigned letter "F." The CD/DVD drive is assigned letter "D." I tried to change the drive designations in Computer Management/Disk Management to "C" for the first drive but was unable to do so.
I now have the following questions.
1) Is there a way to change the drive letters to "C" and "D" for the hard drives?
2) I'm I looking for problems If I change the drive letter designations after some other programs have been loaded?
3) If we leave the hard drive designations as "E" and "F," Is it o.k. to leave the CD/DVD drive with the higher letter "D"?
Thanks for your help

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

1) Is there a way to change the drive letters to "C" and "D" for the hard

drives?

No, not without starting over and reinstalling. Actually, you can change the
drive letter for the non-system drive, you just can't change the one that
the system is installed to.

2) I'm I looking for problems If I change the drive letter designations

after some other programs have been loaded?

Yes, if you change the drive letter where a progr4am is installed. Suggest
you settle on your drive letter scheme first.

3) If we leave the hard drive designations as "E" and "F," Is it o.k. to

leave the CD/DVD drive with the higher letter "D"?

Sure. You may find that some older software that is hard-coded for
installing to C:\ won't like it though.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

My son's computer recently crashed damaging the system and/or file

information, necessitating the reloading of Windows XP. This seemed like a
good time to add a second larger hard drive.

When we reloaded Windows XP, it assigned the new drive (which is now

the system disk) drive letter "E" and the old drive was assigned letter "F."
The CD/DVD drive is assigned letter "D." I tried to change the drive
designations in Computer Management/Disk Management to "C" for the first
drive but was unable to do so.

I now have the following questions.
1) Is there a way to change the drive letters to "C" and "D" for the hard drives?
2) I'm I looking for problems If I change the drive letter

designations after some other programs have been loaded?

3) If we leave the hard drive designations as "E" and "F," Is it o.k.

to leave the CD/DVD drive with the higher letter "D"?

 

[Bill Blanton]

You cannot reassign the %SystemDrive% letter.
You can reassign the CD drive letter via diskmgmt.msc

Drive letters are assigned to volumes contained within partitions.
There's no problem with the system not being "on C:" But to get C:
assigned to the system drive, you could do this-

Wipe the new drive.
Shutdown.
Disconnect the old smaller drive.
Connect the new drive as the primary master.
Boot the XP install CD and install again.
Shutdown and hook up the smaller drive as the slave to the primary
master or on the secondary controller.

The main point is that you want XP to install to the first visible(supported type)
primary partition on the primary master, otherwise it may not enumerate the
drive as you expect.

My son's computer recently crashed damaging the system and/or file information, necessitating the reloading of Windows XP.

This seemed like a good time to add a second larger hard drive.

When we reloaded Windows XP, it assigned the new drive (which is now the system disk) drive letter "E" and the old drive was

assigned letter "F." The CD/DVD drive is assigned letter "D." I tried to change the drive designations in Computer Management/Disk
Management to "C" for the first drive but was unable to do so.

 

[mikey]

it is possible to change the boot drive letter, in doing so , most programs data will be changed as well.
you run the risk of something not working correctly.
if you want to try here are the instructions for doing so,
- Change Disk Drive Letters

First you must remember that you CANNOT change the letter for the

boot drive if it contains the PAGEFILE.SYS (swap file) and/or HIBERFILE.SYS(hibernate file).

To move pagefile.sys use Control Panel | System | Advanced tab | Settings

under Performance | Advanced tab again | Virtual Memory and CHANGE

button. set the drive you want to move FROM to NO Paging File and click on SET.

set the drive you want to move TO and click SET.

To turn off page file, same as above, but select No Paging file and then click the SET button

To disable hiberfile.sys use Control Panel | Power Options Hibernate tab.

THEN REBOOT and Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Computer Management | Disk

Management under Storage, then RIGHT click on the drive letter to change

and select the Change Letter option.

The drive letter you want to use MUST be available and not assigned to another drive.

THEN following the first procedure set the PAGEFILE.SYS back to the

drive it was on originally.

XP automatically adjusts the registry for the drive letter changes.



(e-mail address removed)



My son's computer recently crashed damaging the system and/or file information, necessitating the reloading of Windows XP. This seemed like a good time to add a second larger hard drive.
When we reloaded Windows XP, it assigned the new drive (which is now the system disk) drive letter "E" and the old drive was assigned letter "F." The CD/DVD drive is assigned letter "D." I tried to change the drive designations in Computer Management/Disk Management to "C" for the first drive but was unable to do so.
I now have the following questions.
1) Is there a way to change the drive letters to "C" and "D" for the hard drives?
2) I'm I looking for problems If I change the drive letter designations after some other programs have been loaded?
3) If we leave the hard drive designations as "E" and "F," Is it o.k. to leave the CD/DVD drive with the higher letter "D"?
Thanks for your help