Install Produces E drive instead of C

[W. Watson]

I installed W2000 on a new machine with a new 80G HD on the end of the IDE cable
(primary) and an older 30G HD in the middle. The older HD had nothing but data on it.
When the install began it wanted to format the new HD as E:. I thought that was a
little odd, but figured it would straighten things out at completion. It didn't. When
W2000 was complete, C: was on the old drive and E: on the new drive. Is there any
easy way to change this? If not, I can reinstall a new and take the old drive off
line until the install is complete.
--
Wayne T. Watson (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N, 2,701 feet, Nevada City, CA)
-- GMT-8 hr std. time, RJ Rcvr 39° 8' 0" N, 121° 1' 0" W

When urged to use his "common sense" in our real world, the late
physicist Frank Oppenhiemer responded with, "It's not the real world.
It's a world we made up." -- From Mind Over Matter by K. C. Cole

Web Page: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews>
sierra_mtnview -at- earthlink -dot- net
Imaginarium Museum: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews/imaginarium.html>

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Unfortunately you cannot move your installation from drive
E: to drive C:. It will always have to be on drive E:.

Your proposed method of re-installation will produce
the desired result.

 

[W. Watson]

Thanks. Any idea why it used E? There is yet another way, but I'm very likely better
starting over as you say. Partition Magic 8 will do it, but I think I'll rest easier
by starting over.

Unfortunately you cannot move your installation from drive
E: to drive C:. It will always have to be on drive E:.

Your proposed method of re-installation will produce
the desired result.




data on it.


that was a


didn't. When


there any


drive off


City, CA)


0" W


<home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews/imaginarium.html>

--
Wayne T. Watson (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N, 2,701 feet, Nevada City, CA)
-- GMT-8 hr std. time, RJ Rcvr 39° 8' 0" N, 121° 1' 0" W

When urged to use his "common sense" in our real world, the late
physicist Frank Oppenhiemer responded with, "It's not the real world.
It's a world we made up." -- From Mind Over Matter by K. C. Cole

Web Page: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews>
sierra_mtnview -at- earthlink -dot- net
Imaginarium Museum: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews/imaginarium.html>

 

[dcdon]

Hi W,

What would have happened if you had left the old drive out, installed the new HDD alone(at
the end of the cable, installed W2K, and later put the old drive in the center cable
position and booted??

--
Happy New Year,
don
---

Thanks. Any idea why it used E? There is yet another way, but I'm very likely better
starting over as you say. Partition Magic 8 will do it, but I think I'll rest easier
by starting over.

Unfortunately you cannot move your installation from drive
E: to drive C:. It will always have to be on drive E:.

Your proposed method of re-installation will produce
the desired result.




data on it.


that was a


didn't. When


there any


drive off


City, CA)


0" W


<home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews/imaginarium.html>

--
Wayne T. Watson (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N, 2,701 feet, Nevada City, CA)
-- GMT-8 hr std. time, RJ Rcvr 39° 8' 0" N, 121° 1' 0" W

When urged to use his "common sense" in our real world, the late
physicist Frank Oppenhiemer responded with, "It's not the real world.
It's a world we made up." -- From Mind Over Matter by K. C. Cole

Web Page: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews>
sierra_mtnview -at- earthlink -dot- net
Imaginarium Museum: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews/imaginarium.html>

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

The Windows installation routine gives you a choice for the
target drive. Could it be that you selected the wrong drive?

While PartitionMagic lets you move partitions about, I don't
think it can cope with a change of drive letters. On the
other hand - try it! You have nothing to lose.

 

[I'm Dan]

Thanks. Any idea why it used E?

It's because you didn't already have a partition on the new HD and you
didn't reboot between creating the new partition and installing Win2K. (Not
your fault -- same thing still happens with XP, but MS doesn't warn you
about it.)

It works like this: When you boot the CD, 2K-Setup temporarily assigns C: to
the first existing partition -- in your case, the old HD because there was
no active primary partition on the new HD. Then when you have 2K-Setup
create a partition on the new HD, it assigns it E: because C: is already
taken, even if only temporarily. If you then let 2K-Setup proceed with the
rest of the OS install, the letter E: will be locked into the new registry.

But if you instead reboot after 2K-Setup assigns E:, it will start over
reassigning drive letters, and this time the new partition, being active and
visible, will be assigned first -- namely C: -- and the slave HD will get
assigned some other letter (which you don't really care about at this
point), but at least 2K installs on the new partition properly as C:.

Note this is a problem only when you have other pre-existing partitions
(even zip drives or hidden partitions) in the system. In a normal, fresh
2K/XP install on a single-HD system with a virgin HD, there won't be
pre-existing partitions to pre-empt the letter C:. Perhaps that's why MS
didn't think to include a warning.

Your solution of temporarily removing the old HD will work, but it should
also work correctly if you merely reboot between creating the new partition
and installing the OS. In fact, since you now have an existing partition on
the new HD, it should work properly just to boot from the 2K CD and reformat
it in the course of the reinstallation -- no inbetween reboot necessary
because this time C: will not have been taken by the old HD.