Install XP--C-drive switched?

[wtw]

I just installed XP with a new 320G IDE drive. I put in the master position,
I think, at the end of the cable. I had a second drive in the machine. I
apparently the latter was named audio/video. I now see the old drive is C
and the new drive (local) is F. What happened? How do I correct this without
re-installing.

I recall one odd moment when I was install when it asked something about
formating the new drive. It said something about partitioning it, which I
think I rejected. However, I was puzzled by a list that showed audio/video,
not realizing this was the name I had given to the second drive. As far as I
can tell, all is OK on both drives.

I was surprised not to see icons on the desktop like My Computer, so I
easily made one off the Start Menu.

 

[R. McCarty]

You have to be careful with installing XP when multiple physical
drives are present. Partitions can have a attribute "Active" which
means the volume is the preferred bootable volume on a disk. It
isn't mandatory that Windows reside on C:\. That's just the way
it evolved as early machines had a Floppy A & B.
When XP is installed it examines all physical disks and volumes
to choose a drive letter for the XP volume. Depending on what
pre-existing volumes are present you can end up with Windows
using a non-C:\ drive letter.
Once setup, it's very difficult ( if not impossible ) to re-arrange
the drive letters. This is due to Registry Keys/Values that point to
a specific drive letter.

 

[wtw]

Yikes. Can I just re-install? I guess I'm lucky it even got onto the
audio/video disk. It's practically filled. I'm sure not going to be able to
add much over there.

If not, I might be able to copy the old drive off to a large external drive
I have and then start again. That is remove XP from the c-drive with the
audio/video drive by reformatting it. Then hauling all the files from the
external file back to it.

 

[wtw]

Will this work? Suppose I remove the c-drive, the one which is a slave and
now has XP on it, and re-install on the new drive? At least I won't have to
copy the old stuff off to an external drive, then clean out (format) the old
stuff + XP on it, and copy the old stuff back to the old drive.

 

[Cameramonkey]

I think your best bet is to disconnect the ribbon cable of the old drive and
reinstall onto the new drive.

It sounds like you detected the screw-up before installing a bunch of stuff,
so letting it reinstall properly is probably the quicker (and safer) option.

 

[wtw]

I agree. The fewer things I have to do the better. I'll leave file juggling
matters pretty much alone until I have a rainy day.

 

[wtw]

BTW, I'm assuming XP will reassign drive letter to the primary as C and the
slave as D? Correct?

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I just installed XP with a new 320G IDE drive. I put in the master
position, I think, at the end of the cable. I had a second drive in the
machine. I apparently the latter was named audio/video. I now see the old
drive is C and the new drive (local) is F. What happened? How do I correct
this without re-installing.

You pretty much don't if you want the system drive to be C. The most
reliable thing to do is to reinstall with only the drive you intend to be C,
so there's no possibility of an incorrect assignment.

There are some tools that allege they can do this, but they aren't free.
There are potentially thousands of registry entries that must be changed.

The position on the cable matters only if the drives are jumpered as CS -
Cable Select. If they are set to Master or Slave the position does not
matter.

HTH
-pk

 

[wtw]

As it turns out the computer shop got my old HD up and copied off all the
files to a 320G external HD I supplied. It seemed apparent to the tech guy
that I might be able to get the new HD back in order by using unstoppable
copier. Quite possibly I misunderstood how to do this. I ended up with all
the files on to the new HD, thinking I now had a bootable drive, which I
could take back to the original machine. I was able to boot up, but I'm
quite sure it was off the F-drive that I had accidentally installed on a few
days ago. However, some programs worked fine, but ultimately I could see
this was wrong. F remained the local drive, and, as far as I know, the new
drive has no ability to be booted. Of course, the drive names did not
change. I still have c and f. The new c drive is 320G. Tomorrow mid-morning
I leave for a weekend trip. I'll deal with this again when I get back. At
least, I have all my old doc and other files back. I'll continue to explore
buying a new PC.