"Program Files" is in the E Drive, How can i change it to the C Drive?

[noctisxiii]

Every time i try to install new programs they are not going to my C Drive rather, They are going into my E Drive.

The reason why i want to change it is because E Drive keeps saying its low in space, and i realized its going to the wrong drive. Under disk management it says:

(E : ) Partition Basic Fat32 Healthy (Boot) 4.86 421MB -8% Space- No 0%

ACER (C : ) Partition Basic NTFS Healthy(System) 144.17GB 134.62 GB -93% Space- No 0%

I cannot do anything with a disc because it is a netbook

What should i do to change it?


(NOTE: i recently just installed XP and all the drives today, after i had to reinstall windows XP because of a missing file)

 

[tigsounds]

Click:

Start>Run>Regedit

Go to this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProgramFilesDir

Right-Click the "ProgramFilesDir" entry and select "Edit"
Change to C׃Program Files

Close Regedit

reboot.

 

[noctisxiii]

that worked out well thank you. but some reason some things i try getting (internet explorer 8, to upgrade service pack 3) it directing to the E Drive thus can't upgrade.

 

[tigsounds]

that worked out well thank you. but some reason some things i try getting (internet explorer 8, to upgrade service pack 3) it directing to the E Drive thus can't upgrade.

Aye Ca rumba.... (Apologies to Bart Simpson)

This is because some programs have an "install Path" registry entry.
It can get messy to switch so many items over. Some parts will be expected to be in some places, and they aren't, some programs have registered components that point to where they supposedly exist on the drive, so it is not as simple as doing a copy of the Program Files from one drive to another.


Your original post states that you just re-installed Windows. Guess what...

Spoiler

You're going to have to re-install Windows

Borrow or buy a USB CD/DVD ROM.
Dis-connect all extra drives when you re-install Windows.

Since you just re-installed windows, at least you don't have tons of programs to re-install.

 

[noctisxiii]

Thank you, I was also thinking about doing that too but i think i will have that on hold for a while because took me forever to find the drivers for this netbook so ill wait till i get a USB . Thanks for the help!

 

[tigsounds]

Thank you, I was also thinking about doing that too but i think i will have that on hold for a while because took me forever to find the drivers for this netbook so ill wait till i get a USB . Thanks for the help!

If the machine is up and running, but just has those problems you spoke of, consider getting
Driver Genius. It will back up every last driver in the machine. It can make 3 different backup types,
and the best part is that the "trial" period of the program will make the backups.

It makes a zip file backup, a self-extracting backup, and an Auto-restore backup.

Go here and read all about it. I have it and I love it.

http://www.driver-soft.com/download.html

 

[lembi2001]

The problem you are having is because you have got your E drive as your Boot drive!! When this happens things like microsoft apps will automaticaly use the drive that windows is installed on as their installation location.

The only way to rectify this is to do a complete overhaul of your system as you cannot change the drive letter of your system files.

 

[tigsounds]

The only way to rectify this is to do a complete overhaul of your system as you cannot change the drive letter of your system files.

You are correct.    Once Windows is installed, users are stuck with the drive letter Windows has adopted.

noctisxiii needs to boot from the XP Cd when installing Windows. This is important.

When booted from the CD, Windows will install in any available drive that the user chooses, and the end result will be that drive will appear as drive C׃ despite what physical or logical drive it was installed in.

If Window is installed as a result of running Winnt.exe, it may not end up being drive C׃ and it may not install everything in the same drive either (Program files on a different physical or logical drive).