Problem Swapping Boot Drive with Data Drive

[Lee Beck]

I am in the process of re-configuring my computer and want my boot drive C:\
to become my data drive and my other drive E:\ to become my boot drive. I
have reformatted E in preparation fro installing XP and tried to reformat
C:\ . I have found that neither the Windows or DOS commands that I am
familiar with will allow that. It also will not allow me to reassign a
different drive leter to c:\.

How can I reformat C:\ and assign a different drive letter so that I can use
it as a data dive rather than my boot drive?

 

[David B.]

You cannot format your system drive from within Windows, boot from your XP
installation media to format it.

 

[DL]

Are C & E actually two seperate drives?
If so disconnect C, boot from winxp cd & install, once done & updated
including drivers for your sys, shutdown, reconnect the other drive, reboot
& format the old drive

 

[Lee Beck]

Sounds like an interesting plan. I'm assuming that I can disable the HDD by
using mu BIOS settings without physically removing it. What will my C:\
drive be lettered when I reconnect it? Will I have 2 C drives, each
bootable? And if so, will I be able to format it from within Windows?

One thing that I should add is that I am working from the reinstall disc
that came with my Dell computer, so it doesn't have all of the options that a
MSFT XP install disc does. I found during a Google search an option to "use
my XP install disc and choose option D to reformat the boot drive" and that's
when I learned that the Dell reinstall disc is totally different from the
MSFT product.

 

[David B.]

Just unplug the data cable, you don't need to remove the drive, disabling it
in BIOS does not guarantee the installer won't see it.
As it is impossible to have 2 "C" drives, the answer is no, your old C would
become D or higher depending on your CD drives and memory card readers if
any. The Dell XP media has ALL the options a Microsoft OEM disk has, the
install procedure is identical using either one, what ever you found with
Google was incorrect. You will be able to format your old drive after
installing Windows, you just can't format the drive your booting from.

 

[Lee Beck]

Thanks for hta additional information. I'll do as you suggest and report
back tomorrow.

 

[David B.]

Actually there is one difference, you don't have to enter a product key
during installation, nor do you have to activate the installation.

 

[Lee Beck]

Everything worked as you say. My only problems are with the Dell XP
reinstall routine which was unclear regarding when the install process was
complete and when to remove the INstall CD. I restarted the process a couple
of times since an automated reboot kept bring up the question "do you want to
completely format your hard drive and Install XP...." Then after I figured
that I needed to remove the CD the Dell routine asked me to insert the CD so
that programs could be installed (don't know whether these were Dell programs
or the programs that come with XP).

But these are complaints for Dell. Your advice was very helpful. Thanks.