Re-installing XP Home Ed. on an HP zx5000

[W. eWatson]

My wife converted her XP notebook to Linux immediately when it was
purchased 6 years ago. Recently, she decided to go with a new laptop, so
I had her re-install XP.

I tried it the other day and found the E-drive is the home drive. The
D-drive is for a Belkin wireless card. Can I change E to a C-drive w/o
any problems? Further it does not show many file extensions when I look
at them in a folder. How do I turn on the mechanism to show the extensions?

 

[David H. Lipman]

My wife converted her XP notebook to Linux immediately when it was purchased 6 years
ago. Recently, she decided to go with a new laptop, so I had her re-install XP.

I tried it the other day and found the E-drive is the home drive. The D-drive is for a
Belkin wireless card. Can I change E to a C-drive w/o any problems? Further it does not
show many file extensions when I look at them in a folder. How do I turn on the
mechanism to show the extensions?

If %windir% is on another driver other than "C:", it would be unwise to change drive
designations as the Registry is hard coded to "C:" and you will "break/corrupt" the OS.

My suggestion is to remove/disconnect any hardware that may be a drive such (other thgan
CD/DVD) such that the "C:" drive will be guaranteed the hard disk. Once the OS is
installed you can install/reconnect the hardware and they will Plug 'n Play. Subsequent
to their recognition and drive letters are assigned you may change their drive
designations.

 

[W. eWatson]

This is confusing. "Re-install" on which computer? Is Linux and
XP now on the same computer? No.

What do you mean by "home drive"? The drive that has the Windows
directory on it? A different partition?

Yes, where the OS is installed.

I don't get that, either. I've never seen an network adapter get a
drive letter.


Depends on the answer to my first question. If it's the system
drive, or if there are programs installed on it, NO you cannot safely
change the drive letter. If it's purely a data drive, the answer is...
probably.


Control Panel | Folder Options | View | Advanced Settings... uncheck
"Hide extensions for known file types".

Good.

 

[W. eWatson]

If %windir% is on another driver other than "C:", it would be unwise to change drive
designations as the Registry is hard coded to "C:" and you will "break/corrupt" the OS.

Since there's only one drive, it must be on E.

My suggestion is to remove/disconnect any hardware that may be a drive such (other than
CD/DVD) such that the "C:" drive will be guaranteed the hard disk. Once the OS is
installed you can install/reconnect the hardware and they will Plug 'n Play. Subsequent
to their recognition and drive letters are assigned you may change their drive
designations.

Ah, I see what's going on with the D-drive. It had a Belkin install
wireless CD in it.

Are you suggesting that I re-install the OS, or disconnecting the CD/DVD
drive?

 

[David H. Lipman]

Since there's only one drive, it must be on E.
Ah, I see what's going on with the D-drive. It had a Belkin install wireless CD in it.

Are you suggesting that I re-install the OS, or disconnecting the CD/DVD drive?

A CD/DVD drive will always be assigned a drive letter AFTER hard disks. To be on "E:"
there must be a "C:" and "D:".

I once had this problem with Optiplex GX-400 computers with a ZIP drive where the ZIP
drive was being assigned "C:". By disconnecting the ZIP drive the OS was installed on the
hard disk as "C:".

 

[W. eWatson]

A CD/DVD drive will always be assigned a drive letter AFTER hard disks. To be on "E:"
there must be a "C:" and "D:".

I once had this problem with Optiplex GX-400 computers with a ZIP drive where the ZIP
drive was being assigned "C:". By disconnecting the ZIP drive the OS was installed on the
hard disk as "C:".

I wonder if this is like another laptop I have, where there's some sort
of backup drive.

The only other "drives" I'm aware of is a usb optical mouse and the
place for the Belkin card.

I don't see a Network Places icon on the desktop.

 

[Char Jackson]

The Registry isn't hardcoded to "C:", but it does have a very large
number of references to the drive letter where Windows has been
installed. That can be C: or any other drive letter.

Regardless of the drive letter chosen during the Windows install,
changing it after the fact is troublesome. There are apps that claim
to be able to do the job but I have no experience with them and ISTR
they get mixed reviews.

A CD/DVD drive will always be assigned a drive letter AFTER hard disks. To be on "E:"
there must be a "C:" and "D:".

By "AFTER", if you mean later in time, then I agree. The hard drive
will be assigned a letter first, followed by the optical drive(s).

But if you mean later in the alphabet, then I disagree. For many years
I had one of my XP systems configured to use W: (as in "Windows") as
the system/boot drive, and the optical drives were L:, M:, and N:,
where L: was a physical drive and the last two were virtual drives.

 

[W. eWatson]

....

By "AFTER", if you mean later in time, then I agree. The hard drive
will be assigned a letter first, followed by the optical drive(s).

But if you mean later in the alphabet, then I disagree. For many years
I had one of my XP systems configured to use W: (as in "Windows") as
the system/boot drive, and the optical drives were L:, M:, and N:,
where L: was a physical drive and the last two were virtual drives.

So if I can somehow disconnect the CD/DVD, then XP will re-assign the HD
to C:?

 

[David H. Lipman]

...
So if I can somehow disconnect the CD/DVD, then XP will re-assign the HD to C:?

How are you going to install HP if you disable the CD/DVD and can't boot from the Windows
OS Distribution disk ?

 

[No One]

My wife converted her XP notebook to Linux immediately when it was
purchased 6 years ago. Recently, she decided to go with a new laptop, so
I had her re-install XP.

I tried it the other day and found the E-drive is the home drive. The
D-drive is for a Belkin wireless card. Can I change E to a C-drive w/o
any problems? Further it does not show many file extensions when I look
at them in a folder. How do I turn on the mechanism to show the extensions?

 

[Char Jackson]

...
So if I can somehow disconnect the CD/DVD, then XP will re-assign the HD
to C:?

No, there is no built-in Windows mechanism to reassign the Windows
drive letter to something else. Once Windows is installed, you're
better off considering it set in stone.

If you really want Windows to be on a different drive letter, (and I'm
not sure why it would matter to you what drive letter it uses because
Windows certainly doesn't care), then reinstalling Windows is your
best bet.

 

[Ken Springer]

No, there is no built-in Windows mechanism to reassign the Windows
drive letter to something else. Once Windows is installed, you're
better off considering it set in stone.

Yes there is.

Right click on My computer.
Select Manage from the popup menu, 4th entry from the top in the popup
menu on my machines.
Select Disk Management.
Left click on the drive where you want to start with letter changing.
Go Action>All Tasks>Change Drive letter and Paths.


I've done this a few times with XP, but found it to be a PITA. And I've
never done it to make a boot drive lettered as E:\ or similar, intending
to change it to C:\, so I don't know what, if anything would happen.

Usually, if I want to mess with the drive letters and such, I use 3rd
party partitioning software.

--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 8.0.1
Thunderbird 8.0
LibreOffice 3.3.4

 

[Char Jackson]

Yes there is.

Right click on My computer.
Select Manage from the popup menu, 4th entry from the top in the popup
menu on my machines.
Select Disk Management.
Left click on the drive where you want to start with letter changing.
Go Action>All Tasks>Change Drive letter and Paths.

I'm quite familiar with Disk Management and its ability to change
drive letters, (I use it frequently), but I'm under the distinct
impression that it doesn't work, or at least doesn't work
successfully, when you're trying to change the letter of the Windows
system drive, which is what this thread is about.

If I'm reading correctly, (below), you haven't actually tried changing
the letter of the Windows system drive, right? If not, what are you
suggesting it?

 

[Ken Springer]

I'm quite familiar with Disk Management and its ability to change
drive letters, (I use it frequently), but I'm under the distinct
impression that it doesn't work, or at least doesn't work
successfully, when you're trying to change the letter of the Windows
system drive, which is what this thread is about.

If I'm reading correctly, (below), you haven't actually tried changing
the letter of the Windows system drive, right? If not, what are you
suggesting it?

I took this statement in your earlier post, "No, there is no built-in
Windows mechanism to reassign the Windows drive letter to something
else." to mean Windows did not have any mechanism at all to change drive
letters, not specifically just the system drive.

Of course, if your HD is partitioned before you install the OS, you can
choose to make the Windows system drive something other than C:\.

I wasn't suggesting the OP try it, as that wasn't my understanding of
your post. I simply said I've never tried it. I've never had the
situation that happened to the OP happen to me, so I've never had any
reason to try it. What the one paragraph was meaning to say is I've
used XP to change drive letters, but found XP to be a PITA to do it. My
apologies if that wasn't clear.

But, if he wanted to create a full image of the drive, he *could* try
it, and if it didn't work, reinstall the disk image. And if really
adventurous, the OP could then try changing things with a 3rd party
partitioning program and see what happens.



--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 8.0.1
Thunderbird 8.0
LibreOffice 3.3.4

 

[BillW50]

In

Bottom line: if he wants windows installed to another drive or drive
letter, he'll undoubtedly have to install windows afresh on that
drive. As Char mentioned, it's pretty much set in stone, once its
installed.

Well there are some third party utilities that claim to be able to
change the drive letter of the system drive. And doing so isn't a very
easy task. And while such utilities exists, I never tried one myself. As
once in awhile, some software has problems if Windows isn't on drive C.
I learned this lesson after setting up a dualboot Windows machine. And
one was on drive C and the other on drive D.

 

[Char Jackson]

I took this statement in your earlier post, "No, there is no built-in
Windows mechanism to reassign the Windows drive letter to something
else." to mean Windows did not have any mechanism at all to change drive
letters, not specifically just the system drive.

Of course, if your HD is partitioned before you install the OS, you can
choose to make the Windows system drive something other than C:\.

I wasn't suggesting the OP try it, as that wasn't my understanding of
your post. I simply said I've never tried it. I've never had the
situation that happened to the OP happen to me, so I've never had any
reason to try it. What the one paragraph was meaning to say is I've
used XP to change drive letters, but found XP to be a PITA to do it. My
apologies if that wasn't clear.

OK, no problem, I see now that you misunderstood what I was saying. I
think this particular subthread is only dealing with the Windows
system drive.

I have to take exception, though, to your statement that changing
drive letters on non-system drives in XP is a PITA. It's only a couple
of mouse clicks. It's fast and easy, and not just because I do it
frequently. What problems did you have that made you call it a PITA?

But, if he wanted to create a full image of the drive, he *could* try
it, and if it didn't work, reinstall the disk image. And if really
adventurous, the OP could then try changing things with a 3rd party
partitioning program and see what happens.

I don't think that experiment will turn out well, so the backup would
be very important.

 

[Ken Springer]

OK, no problem, I see now that you misunderstood what I was saying. I
think this particular subthread is only dealing with the Windows
system drive.

Agreed, but the system drive doesn't have to be C:\.

I have to take exception, though, to your statement that changing
drive letters on non-system drives in XP is a PITA. It's only a couple
of mouse clicks. It's fast and easy, and not just because I do it
frequently. What problems did you have that made you call it a PITA?

It's far less intuitive, IMO, than the 3rd party partitioning software I
use. And I've found references that XP doesn't lock the drive to
prevent further changes (as I understand it) to the drive until the
drive letter change or anything else is accomplished.

Another thing with XP Disk Management I've never taken the time to
experiment with, is whether the system moves data as required when you
resize a partition.

I'm left with the distinct impression that if the user wanted to change
drive letters and change partition sizes on a number of partitions, with
XP's disk management you would have to do it in a number of separate
steps, not simply queue those changes, set things in motion, and go have
a cup of (insert favorite drink here ).

I don't think that experiment will turn out well, so the backup would
be very important.

If a person had the time and the curiosity, it would be interesting to
try it out and see what happens.


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 8.0.1
Thunderbird 8.0
LibreOffice 3.3.4

 

[BillW50]

In Ken Springer typed:

I'm left with the distinct impression that if the user wanted to
change drive letters and change partition sizes on a number of
partitions, with XP's disk management you would have to do it in a
number of separate steps, not simply queue those changes, set things
in motion, and go have a cup of (insert favorite drink here ).

Actually changing drive letters is a piece of cake under XP's Disk
Management. There are only two things that I can think of which would be
the exception.

1) I don't think you can change floppy drives. I don't know, I never
tried.

2) Changing the system drive letter is off limits for Windows Disk
Management. This includes the OS and where the applications are
installed. As this task is beyond the ability of DM. As this drive
letter is rooted into so many different parts of the OS.

 

[Char Jackson]

Agreed, but the system drive doesn't have to be C:\.

Right, I pointed that out earlier in the thread when someone claimed
that "C:" is hardcoded in the Registry. It's not, of course. Windows
can be installed to any drive letter, C thru Z. (I think A and B are
off the table.)

It's far less intuitive, IMO, than the 3rd party partitioning software I
use. And I've found references that XP doesn't lock the drive to
prevent further changes (as I understand it) to the drive until the
drive letter change or anything else is accomplished.

XP's Disk Management console is stripped down to the most basic of the
basics, but one thing it does well is allow you to change drive
letters, at least on the non-system drives. Right click on the drive,
select "Change drive letter and paths", and it's right there. I don't
know how it could be any more clear or intuitive.

Another thing with XP Disk Management I've never taken the time to
experiment with, is whether the system moves data as required when you
resize a partition.

Hmm, I can't see that XP's Disk Management console even has that
capability. Win 7, yes, but I don't see it in XP. Personally, I use
Acronis Disk Director for all of my disk & partition management tasks,
with the exception of changing drive letters. I use XP's Disk
Management console for that because it's so quick and easy.

 

[BillW50]

In Char Jackson typed:

Personally, I use Acronis Disk Director for all of my disk & partition
management tasks, with the exception of changing drive letters. I use
XP's Disk Management console for that because it's so quick and easy.

I prefer to use USB Safely Remove utility for changing drive letters
too. As if you say use a removable drive that your backup program (or
any other program) that depends on that drive letter of never changing,
this utility does this too. And it locks out that drive letter for any
other device. So you don't have to keep using Disk Management tool to
keep correcting it.