Hard Drive Letter Designation -

[Guest]

Had to replace my hard drive and re-install 'XP' - I won't bore you with how
this happened, BUT my new hard drive got designated as drive letter 'E'
instead of the normal master/boot drive letter 'C'.

This is more of an irritant than an actual problem (some software loads
expect 'Program Files' to be on drive 'C', for example).

My question: is there any way to redesignate the drive as drive 'C' without
reformatting and re-installing Windows-XP?

Thanks...

 

[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.

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

7. 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.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

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

:

| Had to replace my hard drive and re-install 'XP' - I won't bore you with how
| this happened, BUT my new hard drive got designated as drive letter 'E'
| instead of the normal master/boot drive letter 'C'.
|
| This is more of an irritant than an actual problem (some software loads
| expect 'Program Files' to be on drive 'C', for example).
|
| My question: is there any way to redesignate the drive as drive 'C' without
| reformatting and re-installing Windows-XP?
|
| Thanks...
| --
| Mark Byington, PMP

 

[Guest]

As said, when it's the system-drive there is no easy fix for this. This is
because there will be numerous registry-entries pointing to E:, and
correcting all of them will be nigh-on impossible.

Just thought I'd mention, though, that the situation comes-about through
installing Windows to a drive/partition which isn't the boot-drive and/or
active partition. Before running setup, always make sure that the partition
you intend to install-to is the active one, then it will be C:

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all answers...I ended up doing a re-install with my external drive
disconnected. Now my boot drive is "C" again and all is right in my desktop
world! Good thing, too....the first re-install put USB drivers and some
other stuff on the external drive...and MOST of the other stuff on the
master/boot drive.

So, it probably would have been doing a lot of thrashing back and forth had
I left it that way.

Thanks for the help...