Problems (Win XP Pro) after reinstall

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

Yesterday I did a system restore to a previous Windows state and after
that, Windows failed to load (even in safe mode)-I only received black
screen with mouse cursor on it. I would then try to reinstall Windows,
but I couldn't find my CD. However I still have my old Win 98 SE CD,
so I tried replacing XP with that (better 98 that nothing, I thought
to myself). However, installer told me that hard drive must be
formatted before installing (I suppose because my boot partition is
NTFS, could be wrong though), upon which I cancelled installation.
After that, I received "error loading operaing system" message. So my
only hope was to find my Win XP Pro CD, which I eventually did.
Choosing repair option in Win installer didn't solved anything, so I
installed Windows again, deleting old Windows (which deleted
information stored in registry, favorites, e-mail messages and such
but didn't format entire drive). However, after installation, my drive
letters have changed. My C: drive is missing, and Windows are now
installed on F: drive. Also, all files that previously were on C: are
now also on F: (so there's just been drive letter change). I suppose
that was the reason why Windows couldn't start-the system looked for
Windows on C: drive, which somehow became nonexistant. Also, other
drive letter have changed as well-F: is now E:,G: is D: DVD/CD-R-ROM
is now G: instead of D: and CD-ROM is now H: instead of E:. Only
floppy disk is still displayed as A:.All data on other two partition
is still there (I have two hard disk with three partitions). Other
than that, Windows now load and run more slowly than before (I haven't
installed any service packs yet, but I don't know if installing them
would speed up Windows). I can format my boot drive (now F if that's
necessary since I have to reinstall all of my programs anyway and all
important data is on other two partitions (but if that wouldn't speed
up Windows, it would be a waste of time, nerves and hair). Besides it
was formatted just around two months ago before I got this computer.
So, in short, I would like to:
1) Make my Windows fast as they were
2) Make them back on C: drive, instead of F:
but don't know how.
Thank You in advance