Is boot drive letter significant?

[Guest]

Hard drive crashed, took out the old one and replaced with a new one which is
configured, as the old one, "cable select". Loaded XP Home via backup CD,
but for some reason the new (boot) drive is "H", not "C", and there is no "C"
drive per Windows Explorer. Will this be a problem, and if so, how can I get
the boot drive to be "C"? The Disk Management tool won't let me change it,
of course. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Rich Barry]

Ken, I have never had a problem with my boot drives being other than C:\.
That said, I know there will be more knowledgable
input from other Poster's shortly.

 

[Dave B.]

What do you mean by "backup cd"?
The results you see usually happen when you install XP on a machine that has
an onboard USB memory card reader. In theory having the system dive as H
won't cause any problems, but there is poorly coded software out there that
can have problems with it. I would suggest, rather than having a bigger
problem to deal with down the road, that you format and install XP again,
but unplug the memory card reader from the motherboard before you do.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for replies so far. When I used the backup CD (literally, the
Reinstallation CD provided by Dell with the machine), I had two card readers
plugged in, which wound up being labelled drives D: and E:. The box also has
a DVD burner and a CD-ROM, which wound up being labelled drives F: and G:. I
am not aware of an onboard card reader, but I will look all over, unplug
everything like that, then reinstall XP. Come to think of it, the printer
has a card reader on it, and the printer is plugged in. Wonder if that is
the culprit??? We'll see... And, thanks again.

 

[Dave B.]

I shouldn't have used the term "onboard", external readers have the same
effect. Unplug all readers and USB devices and reinstall, that should get
your system drive back to C.

--

 

[Jim]

Thanks for replies so far. When I used the backup CD (literally, the
Reinstallation CD provided by Dell with the machine), I had two card
readers
plugged in, which wound up being labelled drives D: and E:. The box also
has
a DVD burner and a CD-ROM, which wound up being labelled drives F: and G:.
I
am not aware of an onboard card reader, but I will look all over, unplug
everything like that, then reinstall XP. Come to think of it, the printer
has a card reader on it, and the printer is plugged in. Wonder if that is
the culprit??? We'll see... And, thanks again.

Ken:

Unplug all devices not needed for the install. You only need a keyboard,
mouse, monitor, processor, and CD drive. Unplug everything else unless you
really do like doing the install over and over and over.

Jim

 

[Guest]

Do Dah! Thanks to your advice, unplugged the printer, goofed with trying to
reformat the drive I was using (is that like changing a tire while the car is
rolling?), finally got that done and reloaded XP, and the drive letters are
what I want. Can't thank you enough.

 

[Dave B.]

Your welcome, glad you got it straightened out.

--

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

That was quick! Only ten minutes from Dave's advice to a successful install.
What's your secret?

 

[Guest]

I'd say the secret is a combination of great advice and some dumb luck. And,
I've got plenty of the 'dumb' part. Even though I tell others to back up, I
didn't, so now I'm trying the freezer trick on my old HD to see if I can
salvage some stuff on it.

 

[Ken Blake]

Ken, I have never had a problem with my boot drives being other than C:\.
That said, I know there will be more knowledgable
input from other Poster's shortly.

My experience is like yours. My boot drive is F: and there has never been a
problem resulting from it.