Reinstalling XP to change Hard Disk Drive Letter

[Jesse]

Hello,

I recently built my first PC, I have an Intel P4 1.8
processor and am running XP Home.

My PC has a DVD ROM, CD/RW, and an internal USB card
reader, (secure digital card, compact flash card, memory
stick, etc, etc) that I installed before booting up for
the first time. I have a bit of an issue as my hard drive
was assigned the letter "I" and was hoping to get some
advice. Since I installed the card reader before booting-
up my PC for the first time, the following drive letter
assignments were made and are shown in "My Computer":

3 1/2 Floppy (A
Removable Disk (C
Removable Disk (D
Removable Disk (E
Removable Disk (F
DVD Drive (G
CD-RW Drive (H
Local Disk (I

As you can read from the above list Removable Drive C
thru F is the internal USB Card Reader that I mentioned
above. The problem however, is my Hard Disk which is
shown as "I". I would like to change so that it is "C". I
have tried to go the route of changing the drive letter
but since the drive contains the boot sector Windows will
not let me change.

I believe the only solution is to start over and
reinstall windows XP. This is not really an issue since I
don't have very much loaded on the PC and I can back my
data to a CD. The question I have is how do I do this? My
thought is after I back up, disconnect the internal USB
card reader and then reinstall Windows XP just as I did
the first time.

Can you please give me detailed instructions on how to
accomplish this? Or what I should do and do you think
diconnecting the internal card reader and then
reinstalling windows will fix the letter designation with
my hard drive - I want it to be "C"?

Thanks,
Jesse

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

As you can read from the above list Removable Drive C
thru F is the internal USB Card Reader that I mentioned
above. The problem however, is my Hard Disk which is
shown as "I". I would like to change so that it is "C". I
have tried to go the route of changing the drive letter
but since the drive contains the boot sector Windows will
not let me change.

I believe the only solution is to start over and
reinstall windows XP. This is not really an issue since I
don't have very much loaded on the PC and I can back my
data to a CD. The question I have is how do I do this? My
thought is after I back up, disconnect the internal USB
card reader and then reinstall Windows XP just as I did
the first time.

Can you please give me detailed instructions on how to
accomplish this? Or what I should do and do you think
diconnecting the internal card reader and then
reinstalling windows will fix the letter designation with
my hard drive - I want it to be "C"?

Jesse,

I would remove the internal card reader, then install Windows
XP. That will probably yield the drive letter C to the hard
disk.

Hans-Georg