abuzaid

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I have some problems with win xp. The system boots and works but the problems need a repair install to fix. I have three HD connected with the system on drive F. When I try to do a repair install, it identifies the system as being on drive H instead of F.

The question is, should I proceed with the repair install? why or why not?, or will this cause problems due to the change in the system drive letter?

Also, anyone knows why and how to fix this issue?
 
The original WinXP OP/SYS should be on the C drive, not F or H, your system is all screwed up, you must be running other operating systems on the other HDDs, explain exactly whats going on with your situation, it seems you're leaving out some important details.
 

abuzaid

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Thank you for your input. But my system is not as you say screwed up. There are no other operating systems installed.My system has been running well for years with the same configuration. Problems occured due to a sudden power outage. It is now working with some minor issues which after investigation, the consensus was that a repair install should solve them.

I have three drives. Partition magic provides the following information:

Disk 1 which is a 200 GB SATA drive, has the following: H, L,N,O,P

Disk 2 is 80 GB has C, F, D, E

Disk 3 is 40 GB has I, J

I have also two pyhisical CD drives W and Y and one virtual using Daemon tools which is X.

Please note that I removed the SATA drive when I attempted to repair install. I also tried the repair install with the sata drive, in this case the system was identified as being on M drive.

From the beginning my system was always located on logical drive F without problems.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 

pat mcgroin

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does it offer the option to highlight the drive and overtype to the correct drive offering for repair?
Another option could be to use SFC from the command prompt.
A repair option in XP is difficult.
It will reset drivers and such.
You best option is to back up before doing anything to save before while you can.

Also please state why you think a repair would be helpful as it is a reset not a cure all.
 

abuzaid

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Thank you for your input.

does it offer the option to highlight the drive and overtype to the correct drive offering for repair?

No it does not. So I am forced to go with the offered option only.

Another option could be to use SFC from the command prompt.

Could you please clarify how to do this?

A repair option in XP is difficult.
It will reset drivers and such.
You best option is to back up before doing anything to save before while you can.

Point well taken.

Also please state why you think a repair would be helpful as it is a reset not a cure all.

I faced a problem of some corruptio within the registry and some components that lost their right registration. After checking with MS knowledge base and other location the option w either to do a restore or a repair install. Restore was not possible so I am left with the reapir install.

If I do a repair install with the system drive different than originally recognized by windows when it starts, will this cause a problem?
 

pat mcgroin

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how attached are you to your current setup?
A fresh instal is always a better option.

To run SFC this page will be helpful
http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html

Another option you could try first would be to get a copt of Ccleaner and let it clean your registry and other files and see if that helps any.
You may be surprised how many errors it will find and fix.

Here is another page helpful when doing a repair
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
 

razor512

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simple solution if you want to reinstall.

since you have partition magic, you can use it to set all extra partitions as hidden, having only the windows install visible

then reinstall window and it will be seen as drive c


Windows has to be on drive C, theres no way around it with out having problems

many patching programs for games and other apps don't let you specify the game location,

so if you try to patch them, they will look for the install on drive c and not find it



PS partition magic cant change the drive letter of the xp install if you try it it will bluescreen when it restarts ( I tried it before, just to see what would happen)


PS make sure you save the partition magic recovery floppy disks
 

pat mcgroin

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Windows has to be on drive C, theres no way around it with out having problems
many patching programs for games and other apps don't let you specify the game location,
so if you try to patch them, they will look for the install on drive c and not find it


I cant remember the last time I had windows on c:
usually it will look for %windows%