Switched Drives

[Guest]

Had to reinstall windows. My hard drive is partitioned to C and D. After
reinstalling, my drives were switched. Now C is the huge drive that is
supposed to contain backups, and D is a much smaller partition. JS

 

[Newbie Coder]

JS,

When you re-installed Windows you had the option to choose the correct
partition, which you obviously never did. So, I guess you have lost your
backups due to formatting the wrong partition

Right-click MY COMPUTER & choose MANAGE

Click on Disc Management
Right-click C & choose a letter not used
Right-click D & choose drive letter C
Right-click your original drive C & change to D
Then set C to the primary partition

I hope this helps,

 

[Guest]

Windows will not let me change c (system volume) drive first. Will let me
change d drive but says I may lose some programs

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Had to reinstall windows.

"Had to"" Why? Hardly anybody ever has to, and in fact, doing so is usually
a mistake.

My hard drive is partitioned to C and D.
After reinstalling, my drives were switched. Now C is the huge drive
that is supposed to contain backups, and D is a much smaller
partition. JS

And? Why is that a problem?

I take it that Windows is installed on D:. There's no special drive it needs
to be on. I have it installed on F:, with no problems at all as a result.

You can change the drive letters of any drive except the one Windows is
installed on, The only way to change that is by reinstalling.

 

[Rock]

JS,

When you re-installed Windows you had the option to choose the correct
partition, which you obviously never did. So, I guess you have lost your
backups due to formatting the wrong partition

Right-click MY COMPUTER & choose MANAGE

Click on Disc Management
Right-click C & choose a letter not used
Right-click D & choose drive letter C
Right-click your original drive C & change to D
Then set C to the primary partition

You can't change the drive letter assigned to either the boot or system
volumes.

 

[Rock]

Had to reinstall windows. My hard drive is partitioned to C and D. After
reinstalling, my drives were switched. Now C is the huge drive that is
supposed to contain backups, and D is a much smaller partition. JS

Redo the install and make sure it's a clean install. Boot from the XP
installation CD, and delete the partition that you want XP on, then install,
then create a new one there, format and install XP to that. See this link
for how to do a clean install.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

 

[Newbie Coder]

The losing of some programs is due to you having installed or backed up to
this drive

Not in your case, but you get the same error message if you install from a
CD/DVD ROM & then change the drive because if it needs a file the install
location is saved in the registry

To change C you need to de-activate the volume firts as its the active
partition. Maybe using FDISK is a better option because it works at a lower
level, but if you do something wrong with that utility then you could wipe
your entire partition.

 

[Newbie Coder]

Rock

If you boot from the Installation CD you cannot delete C because its in use

The OP originally said he doesn't have a CD ROM. How do you boot from a CD
ROM if you don't have a CD ROM drive installed? LOL

To do a clean install is easy. Why do you have to point the OP to a link?

 

[John John]

JS,

Right-click MY COMPUTER & choose MANAGE

Click on Disc Management
Right-click C & choose a letter not used
Right-click D & choose drive letter C
Right-click your original drive C & change to D
Then set C to the primary partition

The poster will not be able to do that, try it for yourself and see.

John

 

[John John]

The original poster said nothing about not having a CD-ROM. If you boot
with the Windows (Installation) cd you can delete ALL the partitions on
the disk provided that they are not special partitions created by third
party tools. Where do you get the idea that any partition will be in
use if you boot with the Windows CD?

John

 

[Newbie Coder]

I disagree about deleting all partitions etc

If you try that in XP when you have a previous version of XP on C it will
say C is in use & you cannot format... it

Ghosting is so much easier providing you have a clean image that has been
sys prepped

 

[John John]

No one said any thing about deleting the partitions while you are booted
to Windows. You won't be able to format or delete the System and Boot
volumes while you are booted to Windows, if you boot with your Windows
cd and chose to install Windows you will be able to delete any or all
the partitions on the disk, and then create new ones and format them.

John

 

[Rock]

Rock

If you boot from the Installation CD you cannot delete C because its in
use

Of course you can. You can delete the partition on which the OS is
installed from the XP installation CD. You can delete any partition from
there. What you cannot do is format or delete it from within windows.

The OP originally said he doesn't have a CD ROM. How do you boot from a CD
ROM if you don't have a CD ROM drive installed? LOL

The OP never stated they didn't have a CD drive. What exactly are you
talking about?

To do a clean install is easy. Why do you have to point the OP to a link?

There are many issues to consider when doing a clean install. The link I
gave the OP is a very nice step by step guide to it.

I suggest you spend a bit more time lurking in these newsgroups to learn
some things before posting again, and showing how little you do know.

 

[Guest]

new installation verry difficult with XP insert cd install -enter- new
install - enter, and watch, overwrites all.