Drive Letter question

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

If a new computer with two SATA II 250 GB Hard Drives with 3 partitions on each
were installed: the first partition on the 1st HDD would be C: (system drive for
Win XP MCE 2005); the first partition on the 2nd HDD would be D: (reserved as
the system drive for Win Vista, when Vista is available); the 2nd partition on
the 1st HDD would be E:; the 3rd partition on the 1st HDD would be F:; the 2nd
partition on the 2nd HDD would be G:; and the 3rd partition on the 2nd HDD would
be H:; and the DVD burner would be I:.

What would happen if 2 more SATA II hard drives were installed a few years from
now? Would the 1st partition on the 3rd HDD become E:; and the 1st partition on
the 4th HDD become F:; and then the drive letters in each of the non 1st
partitons of hard drives 1 & 2 be moved 2 letters down along with the DVD
burner?

Also, if I installed an IDE hard drive for Win 98SE, can this be installed after
the SATA II drives with Win XP MCE 2005 is installed; and how would that affect
drive letters? Win 98SE will be on a FAT 32 drive, and Win XP, etc. will be on
NTFS. I guess that would screw up the drive letters when looking from the XP
side, unless there is some way to hide 98SE from XP.

 

[Pennywise]

|>If a new computer with two SATA II 250 GB Hard Drives with 3 partitions on each
|>were installed: the first partition on the 1st HDD would be C: (system drive for
|>Win XP MCE 2005); the first partition on the 2nd HDD would be D: (reserved as
|>the system drive for Win Vista, when Vista is available); the 2nd partition on
|>the 1st HDD would be E:; the 3rd partition on the 1st HDD would be F:; the 2nd
|>partition on the 2nd HDD would be G:; and the 3rd partition on the 2nd HDD would
|>be H:; and the DVD burner would be I:.
|>
|>What would happen if 2 more SATA II hard drives were installed a few years from
|>now? Would the 1st partition on the 3rd HDD become E:; and the 1st partition on
|>the 4th HDD become F:; and then the drive letters in each of the non 1st
|>partitons of hard drives 1 & 2 be moved 2 letters down along with the DVD
|>burner?

If the partition is active the third drive's first partition would E:
then the rest of the partitions would follow where your second Drives
left off

 

[Ron Sommer]

|>If a new computer with two SATA II 250 GB Hard Drives with 3 partitions
on each
|>were installed: the first partition on the 1st HDD would be C: (system
drive for
|>Win XP MCE 2005); the first partition on the 2nd HDD would be D:
(reserved as
|>the system drive for Win Vista, when Vista is available); the 2nd
partition on
|>the 1st HDD would be E:; the 3rd partition on the 1st HDD would be F:;
the 2nd
|>partition on the 2nd HDD would be G:; and the 3rd partition on the 2nd
HDD would
|>be H:; and the DVD burner would be I:.
|>
|>What would happen if 2 more SATA II hard drives were installed a few
years from
|>now? Would the 1st partition on the 3rd HDD become E:; and the 1st
partition on
|>the 4th HDD become F:; and then the drive letters in each of the non 1st
|>partitons of hard drives 1 & 2 be moved 2 letters down along with the
DVD
|>burner?

If the partition is active the third drive's first partition would E:
then the rest of the partitions would follow where your second Drives
left off



--
In the spirit of taking things too far, here is a fully functional
5-dimensional
analog of Rubik's cube.
http://www.gravitation3d.com/magiccube5d/

The first active partition becomes C:, that would not have to be the first
partition.

 

[Ron Sommer]

Installing a IDE drive would depend on how the Bios is setup.
XP would not boot unless you use a boot manager.

 

[Andy]

On Tue, 06 Jun 2006 04:37:14 GMT, "Cymbal Man Freq." <Don't

If a new computer with two SATA II 250 GB Hard Drives with 3 partitions on each
were installed: the first partition on the 1st HDD would be C: (system drive for
Win XP MCE 2005); the first partition on the 2nd HDD would be D: (reserved as
the system drive for Win Vista, when Vista is available); the 2nd partition on
the 1st HDD would be E:; the 3rd partition on the 1st HDD would be F:; the 2nd
partition on the 2nd HDD would be G:; and the 3rd partition on the 2nd HDD would
be H:; and the DVD burner would be I:.

The scenario depicted above only occurs when installing Windows XP on
disks that have already been partitioned before Windows setup is run.

What would happen if 2 more SATA II hard drives were installed a few years from
now? Would the 1st partition on the 3rd HDD become E:; and the 1st partition on
the 4th HDD become F:; and then the drive letters in each of the non 1st
partitons of hard drives 1 & 2 be moved 2 letters down along with the DVD
burner?

No. The normal way of adding new drives is to run Disk Management to
partition and format them. New partitions can only receive unused
drive letters. This is true even if you add new drives that are
already partitioned and formatted.

Also, if I installed an IDE hard drive for Win 98SE, can this be installed after
the SATA II drives with Win XP MCE 2005 is installed; and how would that affect
drive letters? Win 98SE will be on a FAT 32 drive, and Win XP, etc. will be on
NTFS. I guess that would screw up the drive letters when looking from the XP
side, unless there is some way to hide 98SE from XP.

If you plan to run Windows 98 later on, the file system on the active
primary partition on the first physical disk must be FAT. As far as
how Windows XP sees the drive letters on the IDE drive, they're no
different than adding SATA drives.