How can I change my hard drive letter?

[db101]

Hey fellas! I just went out and bought a DVD burner today so I can copy the stuff I want onto DVDs, then I'm gonna reformat my hard drive. For some reason, when I reformatted last time and installed XP (paid for, not pirated ) my hard drive (C:\) was named "I:\" instead. Well I figured it wouldn't be a big deal, so I didn't mess with it. But over the months it's been a little annoying sometimes when I try installing something that automatically looks for a 'C' drive, and I can't specify it to use my ill-named 'I' drive.

Does anyone know how I can avoid this problem this time? My computer is a (gasp! :x ) eMachines T4010... I've added ram and changed out the optical drives a long time ago, but no major changes. Thanks in advance!

 

[The_Interloper]

If I'm not mistaking, changing to C: can be kinda tricky because it's usually reserved for the primary (system) partition. Drive letters can be altered in Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management. Partition Magic gives you the option to change drive letters and is less tricky.

 

[Rhinofart]

Is this your primary hard drive, and or only hard drive? No other partitions on the drive? Using the Disk Manager to change the drive letter to C won't work for the primary drive. You may have to reload windows and clear off the partitions on the drive and install fresh from your DVD drive. Then it should default to C: for your install.

 

[db101]

It's my only hard drive. I'm going to be reformatting and reinstalling Windows anyway, so I (obviously) don't mind if the steps require me to do this.

I'm just confused because I thought when you only have one HDD installed, Windows will make that 'C' - but last time when was doing a fresh install it named it 'I'. Strange, eh?

Anyway I'm backing my stuff up this evening, and may format tonight or tomorrow... maybe I should just cross my fingers and hope it gives me a C drive? It seems like that would be the obvious thing to do, because it's what usually works, right? Maybe I did something wrong last time - I was a bit of a noob.

 

[nhobo]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844

 

[KTev]

The best way is to dump the eMachines onto your mother/sister or some other half wit that doesn't know crap about good computers.

When you build yourself a real system: xp will default to c: and make sure you don't change it.

 

[McPhisto]

You wouldn't happen to have a media card reader plugged in?
I made the mistake of leaving one plugged in and somehow I ended up with a letter other than C as the OS drive. (cant remember what it was now)
I ended up formatting once I realised it wouldn't be easy to remedy but fortunately I noticed before I had installed lots of programs.

 

[cletus_slackjawd]

Actually Emachines isn't bad, it's just you get what you pay for. If you want to pay less than a big brand name, then what do you expect huh?

I have an Emachines Laptop 'M6807' that I bought like 3 years ago. Runs strong, it's got a 3000+ A64 mobile and intergrated 9600Pro, a 15.4" screen etc. I took it with me to Kuwait for a year in a tent and it didnt break. Held up to sandstorms, high temps, multiple spikes and surges from the multiple generators that broke down from heat/abuse. So, Emachines, I've concluded is not THAT bad. Toshiba Laptops are another story, I've many friends who had these and they broke after 1 year.

 

[nobly]

It's my only hard drive. I'm going to be reformatting and reinstalling Windows anyway, so I (obviously) don't mind if the steps require me to do this.

I'm just confused because I thought when you only have one HDD installed, Windows will make that 'C' - but last time when was doing a fresh install it named it 'I'. Strange, eh?

Anyway I'm backing my stuff up this evening, and may format tonight or tomorrow... maybe I should just cross my fingers and hope it gives me a C drive? It seems like that would be the obvious thing to do, because it's what usually works, right? Maybe I did something wrong last time - I was a bit of a noob.

Sometimes this happens if the HDD was previously formatted as (in this case) the "I" drive. When WinXP installs it'll list the partitions that are available (along w/ their drive letters). Its possible that the HDD was previously used as someone's I-drive and you just installed XP over it.
This is how I managed to install XP on my "F" drive... erg. On the plus side, I've heard that it can fool some viruses if they get past your scanners.

To avoid this: during XP setup, destroy the partitions and create a new one. Should be named "C".

Also, its almost impossible to change the system drive letter without reformatting - unless you have some special software. I don't personally know of any that will do that.

happy formatting double check your backups!

 

[db101]

Thanks for the words of wisdom, guys. I am planning on getting a "real computer" just as soon as I can, and dump this load on some other poor soul. :twisted: Although, honestly, I know other people that have eMachines and I've never seen any real problems with them (other than the fact that they're cheap). I'd rather buy one of these than a similar Dell.

McPhisto, you hit the nail on the head - I tried reinstalling my system but still got a crappy drive letter, so I unplugged the media reader and installed again. Volia, I have a C drive! Strange that I haven't noticed this problem before, but then again I'm using a different version of XP now. Who knows.

 

[McPhisto]

McPhisto, you hit the nail on the head - I tried reinstalling my system but still got a crappy drive letter, so I unplugged the media reader and installed again. Volia, I have a C drive! Strange that I haven't noticed this problem before, but then again I'm using a different version of XP now. Who knows.

I'm glad to have been of some assistance.

 

[MarkG]

Also, its almost impossible to change the system drive letter without reformatting - unless you have some special software.

Actually, you just change a couple of registry variables.

However, if you've installed software which stores its location in the registry, then you'll need to change all those paths too, which means you probably are better off reinstalling from scratch unless you know what you're doing.

 

[db101]

Also, its almost impossible to change the system drive letter without reformatting - unless you have some special software.

Actually, you just change a couple of registry variables.

However, if you've installed software which stores its location in the registry, then you'll need to change all those paths too, which means you probably are better off reinstalling from scratch unless you know what you're doing.
I'd get lost trying to juggle registry entries - formatting is so much easier. Man I love a clean system, I can really tell a difference in system responsiveness (now observe as I start loading on piles of crap again as the semester progresses ).