XP Pro install issues

  • Thread starter Thread starter Eric Anderson
  • Start date Start date
E

Eric Anderson

I have a win2k system with 3 drives - 2 SCSI and 1 ATAPI.
Currently, I have the SCSI set for C: and D:, and the
ATAPI set to F:

I want to install XP on the ATAPI drive. I can set the
BIOS so it is the boot drive. I did this, and then booted
with the XP Pro disk.

When it gets to the partition selection step, it shows the
drives with the same drive letters as win2k - i.e., the
ATAPI drive - listed first - is also shown as drive F:.
Trying to install on F: gives me the message that it can't
be done.

I need to install in the ATAPI because the SCSI drives are
too small for me now. But I do not understand why the
installer knows the drive letters from win2k. Is it not
installing because it wants the drive to be C:? If so,
can I change that somehow (in a reversable manner - since
I want to go back to win2k if I am unsuccessful in
installing XP)?

How do I proceed?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Eric Anderson
 
Drive F: is a simple dynamic drive. If I am understanding
correctly, I would need to delete the volume on F:, and
then revert to basic. In the process, I will destroy all
data on the disk. It is still F:, however.

So, if I did this revision of the drive setup, would XP
install? I don't want to destroy 18 GB of data if I can
avoid it. I have backups of all data on the disk - it is
just a long process to copy 18 GB over 100 base-T

If I do it, and XP installs, will it still think it is
drive F:? Is something stored on the drive that tells the
OS what drive letter it is?

Essentially, can I leave the drive letters alone, and
still get XP to work? Alternatively, can I reassign drive
letters in win2k so it is booting from its current SCSI
drive, relabeled to D:, for example? Like this:

C: now -> E: and is win2k boot
D: now stays D:
F: now -> C: and is XP boot
E: now (CD-ROM) -> F:

Will this work? It seems to me that strange drive
lettering should be applied to the old OS because at some
point it will go away, and it would be nice if XP had its
boot vol named C:. Or, can I relabel them later, after XP
is installed and running happily from F:?

Sorry for all the details, but I am looking for a
solutionto allow me to get XP up while still being able to
revert back to win2k "just in case" things don't go well.
I am willing to lose all data on F: since I have backups
of it all.

Regards,

Eric
 
Back
Top