Running system with no C:\ drive... how to fix

  • Thread starter Thread starter Winston O'Brien
  • Start date Start date
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Winston O'Brien

Folks;
I have never seen this one before. Storage manager shows me:

| || My notes
Disk 0 basic 40GB (G:) (system) <<== *NOT* C: Primary Master
Disk 1 basic (40GB (D:)) (healthy) Primary Slave
(34GB (E:)) (healthy)
CDROM 0 cdrom (F:) Secondary Master
CDROM 2 dvd (H:) Secondary Slave
(All are NTFS formatted)

OK; it boots from disk 0, but somehow assigns the drive letter (G:) from
between the 2 CD/DVD devices.
There was an earlier configuration where I had a disk (the 74GB) as the
Secondary slave (no dvd) and another 13GB as the Primary slave (which was
removed).

I can't change the drive letter for G: as it is the running system drive.

Any suggexstion about how to have the system re-allocate these correctly?


Winston O'Brien
 
Not uncommon at all to see the system partition with a drive letter other
than C:\

To do a clean install, either boot the Windows 2000 install CD-Rom or setup
disks. The set of four install disks can be created from your Win2k CD-rom;
change to the \bootdisk directory on the cd-rom and execute makeboot.exe
(from dos) or makebt32.exe (from 32 bit) and follow the prompts.

When you get to the point, delete the existing NTFS and or other partitions
found. After you delete the partition(s) abort the install, then again
restart the pc booting the CD-Rom or setup disks to avoid unexpected drive
letter assignments with your new install.
 
Dave said:
Not uncommon at all to see the system partition with a drive letter other
than C:\

To do a clean install, either boot the Windows 2000 install CD-Rom or
setup disks. The set of four install disks can be created from your Win2k
CD-rom; change to the \bootdisk directory on the cd-rom and execute
makeboot.exe (from dos) or makebt32.exe (from 32 bit) and follow the
prompts.

When you get to the point, delete the existing NTFS and or other
partitions found. After you delete the partition(s) abort the install,
then again restart the pc booting the CD-Rom or setup disks to avoid
unexpected drive letter assignments with your new install.
Click to expand...

Well; I did another clean install.
Cleared the last install using a booted Win98SE CD to run fdisk and
remove the non-DOS (NTFS) partition.
Booted Win2k, it found the enpty disk and did a partition, format and
install. The result was:


| || My notes
Disk 0 basic 40GB (G:) (system) <<== NOT C: Primary Master
Disk 1 basic (40GB (c:)) (healthy) Primary Slave
(34GB (d:)) (healthy)
CDROM 0 cdrom (e:) Secondary Master
CDROM 2 dvd (f:) Secondary Slave>
(All are NTFS formatted)

I checked the bios to make sure the channel assignnmts were as described.
Drive C: is now the Primary slave. Might it have something to do with
'Active' partitions? .... 'Fdisk' is not recognized as an internal nor
extenal command... bummer....


Winston O'Brien
 
Winston said:
Well; I did another clean install.
Cleared the last install using a booted Win98SE CD to run fdisk and
remove the non-DOS (NTFS) partition.
Booted Win2k, it found the enpty disk and did a partition, format and
install. The result was:

| || My notes
Disk 0 basic 40GB (G:) (system) <<== NOT C: Primary Master
Disk 1 basic (40GB (c:)) (healthy) Primary Slave
(34GB (d:)) (healthy)
CDROM 0 cdrom (e:) Secondary Master
CDROM 2 dvd (f:) Secondary Slave>
(All are NTFS formatted)

I checked the bios to make sure the channel assignnmts were as described.
Drive C: is now the Primary slave. Might it have something to do with
'Active' partitions? .... 'Fdisk' is not recognized as an internal nor
extenal command... bummer....

Winston O'Brien
Click to expand...

Been there. Dave's advice works. No shortcuts --- delete everything when
getting to the screen asking setting up partitions. Next, specify the system
(boot) partition followed by the extended partition (that will later be sub-
divided into logical drives). Result --- no more starting the system from any
other drive letter except C after the OS gets installed.
 
Well; I did another clean install.
Cleared the last install using a booted Win98SE CD to run fdisk and
remove the non-DOS (NTFS) partition.
Click to expand...
1. Don't do this; it's not necessary and is causing your problem. The
only time you need to delete the partition is if you want to change
something about it, e.g., its size or type.
2. Boot from the Win2K installation CD.
3. When you get to the drives/partitions screen, select partition C:
(which should be the G: partition that W2K was installed on) to
install to.
4. On the next screen choose to format the partition as NTFS.
 
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