replaced hard disk wants to be F:

[Guest]

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

I had my (only) hard disk replaced and now it calls itself F:. The Zip drive
is C: and the rest is CD etc. As many installing programs default to C:, this
is annoying. Where do I change it? The boot order in BIOS is floppy then hard
disk...Is this is in Win XP?

 

[Guest]

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

Drive Letters Change Unexpectedly When You Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326683&Product=winxp

You'll have to physically disconnect whatever drive is shown as the current C: drive,
perform a "clean install", then reconnect that drive.

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

Note: If you are unable to activate Windows XP again via the internet,
then select the option to "activate by telephone".

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Andras" wrote:

| I had my (only) hard disk replaced and now it calls itself F:. The Zip drive
| is C: and the rest is CD etc. As many installing programs default to C:, this
| is annoying. Where do I change it? The boot order in BIOS is floppy then hard
| disk...Is this is in Win XP?

 

[Guest]

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

Go to the Windows XP help and support centre and type in -

assign drive letter

This will give you the answer chapter and verse.

Once you have found disk management you may have to juggle drive letters
until you get them assigned properly but it is quite easy.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

"Andras" <Andras@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:03B24DBB-1479-4544-A8D0-A9BFBEB50C0A@microsoft.com...
>I had my (only) hard disk replaced and now it calls itself F:. The Zip
>drive
> is C: and the rest is CD etc. As many installing programs default to C:,
> this
> is annoying. Where do I change it? The boot order in BIOS is floppy then
> hard
> disk...Is this is in Win XP?

 

[Guest]

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

Thanks, very helpful. I should have found it myself but nice to get help
Andras

"Bill Ridgeway" wrote:

> Go to the Windows XP help and support centre and type in -
>
> assign drive letter
>
> This will give you the answer chapter and verse.
>
> Once you have found disk management you may have to juggle drive letters
> until you get them assigned properly but it is quite easy.
>
> Regards.
>
> Bill Ridgeway
> Computer Solutions
>
> "Andras" <Andras@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:03B24DBB-1479-4544-A8D0-A9BFBEB50C0A@microsoft.com...
> >I had my (only) hard disk replaced and now it calls itself F:. The Zip
> >drive
> > is C: and the rest is CD etc. As many installing programs default to C:,
> > this
> > is annoying. Where do I change it? The boot order in BIOS is floppy then
> > hard
> > disk...Is this is in Win XP?
>
>
>

 

[GTS]

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

There's an interesting assortment of conflicting advice here. FWIW here's
my take on it.

Firstly, if Windows was newly installed as drive F: which may happen (as
others noted) if an external drive was attached during the installation,
there will me hundreds of registry entries pointing to drive F: for windows
system files and other purposes. Although the system drive letter can be
changed, Windows then might or might not boot at all and would at best be
unstable and problematic. If this is the case the choice is either to live
with the F: installation or do a clean reinstallation (without the
additional drive devices present).

On the other hand, there is one circumstance where changing the boot drive
letter change can be appropriate. This may occur if your old drive was
imaged (with a Drive Image/Ghost) type process and mistakes were made after
restoring that image on the new drive. In that case if Windows is first
booted without making sure the new drive is the active master and other
drives detached the system drive letter may change while other references in
the registry still point to C: In this case, you can fix the system drive
letter. Note you must be sure to also edit boot.ini before rebooting as it
would still point to F: and the boot would fail.

The system/boot drive letter cannot be changed in Computer Management. If
can however be changed if appropriate using the instructions in How To
Restore the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223188
--

"Andras" <Andras@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:03B24DBB-1479-4544-A8D0-A9BFBEB50C0A@microsoft.com...
>I had my (only) hard disk replaced and now it calls itself F:. The Zip
>drive
> is C: and the rest is CD etc. As many installing programs default to C:,
> this
> is annoying. Where do I change it? The boot order in BIOS is floppy then
> hard
> disk...Is this is in Win XP?

 

[Guest]

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

Andras wrote:
> I had my (only) hard disk replaced and now it calls itself F:. The Zip drive
> is C: and the rest is CD etc. As many installing programs default to C:, this
> is annoying. Where do I change it? The boot order in BIOS is floppy then hard
> disk...Is this is in Win XP?

You should have disconnected the Zip drive before installing the new
drive. This is a known behaviour. If you paid someone to replace the
drive, complain and insist they put it right. Otherwise I fear the only
way to get C: back as your system drive is to reformat the new drive and
reinstall XP (after removing the Zip drive of course). You can then add
the Zip drive back. Alternatively, learn to live with it. XP doesn't
care which drive letter it is on and it is unlikely you will come across
a program these days that won't give you the option to install it on any
drive.

 

[Locke]

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

"John Coode" <faecius@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:eLEjkufXFHA.1152@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Andras wrote:
>> I had my (only) hard disk replaced and now it calls itself F:. The Zip
>> drive is C: and the rest is CD etc. As many installing programs default
>> to C:, this is annoying. Where do I change it? The boot order in BIOS is
>> floppy then hard disk...Is this is in Win XP?
>
> You should have disconnected the Zip drive before installing the new
> drive. This is a known behaviour. If you paid someone to replace the
> drive, complain and insist they put it right. Otherwise I fear the only
> way to get C: back as your system drive is to reformat the new drive and
> reinstall XP (after removing the Zip drive of course). You can then add
> the Zip drive back. Alternatively, learn to live with it. XP doesn't care
> which drive letter it is on and it is unlikely you will come across a
> program these days that won't give you the option to install it on any
> drive.

Formatting seems a bit extreme when you can just reassign the C: to the
harddrive through disk management. But I do agree with you, as I told
someone in another group that you should disconnect the other drives if
there is an issue with drive assignments.

Locke

 

[Guest]

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

I think the disk management suggested in another post is simpler. The
replacement was done by a Dell engineer on site!!
Thanks anyway,
Andras

"John Coode" wrote:

> Andras wrote:
> > I had my (only) hard disk replaced and now it calls itself F:. The Zip drive
> > is C: and the rest is CD etc. As many installing programs default to C:, this
> > is annoying. Where do I change it? The boot order in BIOS is floppy then hard
> > disk...Is this is in Win XP?
>
> You should have disconnected the Zip drive before installing the new
> drive. This is a known behaviour. If you paid someone to replace the
> drive, complain and insist they put it right. Otherwise I fear the only
> way to get C: back as your system drive is to reformat the new drive and
> reinstall XP (after removing the Zip drive of course). You can then add
> the Zip drive back. Alternatively, learn to live with it. XP doesn't
> care which drive letter it is on and it is unlikely you will come across
> a program these days that won't give you the option to install it on any
> drive.
>

 

[Guest]

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

Andras

The Dell engineer didn't care as long as the computer was working.. call
them back and ask to have the problem rectified.. they should and do know
better than to leave a system say up in such a way..

--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm





"Andras" <Andras@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C1A3E870-5E2F-4916-8E33-22804D52FE05@microsoft.com...
>I think the disk management suggested in another post is simpler. The
> replacement was done by a Dell engineer on site!!
> Thanks anyway,
> Andras
>
> "John Coode" wrote:
>
>> Andras wrote:
>> > I had my (only) hard disk replaced and now it calls itself F:. The Zip
>> > drive
>> > is C: and the rest is CD etc. As many installing programs default to
>> > C:, this
>> > is annoying. Where do I change it? The boot order in BIOS is floppy
>> > then hard
>> > disk...Is this is in Win XP?
>>
>> You should have disconnected the Zip drive before installing the new
>> drive. This is a known behaviour. If you paid someone to replace the
>> drive, complain and insist they put it right. Otherwise I fear the only
>> way to get C: back as your system drive is to reformat the new drive and
>> reinstall XP (after removing the Zip drive of course). You can then add
>> the Zip drive back. Alternatively, learn to live with it. XP doesn't
>> care which drive letter it is on and it is unlikely you will come across
>> a program these days that won't give you the option to install it on any
>> drive.
>>

 

[Guest]

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

Locke wrote:
> "John Coode" <faecius@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:eLEjkufXFHA.1152@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>
>>Andras wrote:
>>
>>>I had my (only) hard disk replaced and now it calls itself F:. The Zip
>>>drive is C: and the rest is CD etc. As many installing programs default
>>>to C:, this is annoying. Where do I change it? The boot order in BIOS is
>>>floppy then hard disk...Is this is in Win XP?
>>
>>You should have disconnected the Zip drive before installing the new
>>drive. This is a known behaviour. If you paid someone to replace the
>>drive, complain and insist they put it right. Otherwise I fear the only
>>way to get C: back as your system drive is to reformat the new drive and
>>reinstall XP (after removing the Zip drive of course). You can then add
>>the Zip drive back. Alternatively, learn to live with it. XP doesn't care
>>which drive letter it is on and it is unlikely you will come across a
>>program these days that won't give you the option to install it on any
>>drive.
>
>
> Formatting seems a bit extreme when you can just reassign the C: to the
> harddrive through disk management. But I do agree with you, as I told
> someone in another group that you should disconnect the other drives if
> there is an issue with drive assignments.
>
> Locke
>
>
But you can't reassign the drive letter of the boot partition using Disk
Management. It is fixed to whatever was assigned to it at installation.