How to change/sett drives letter?

[makaveli2007]

hi guys

i had 2 Hard drive's 1st is IDE one partition (C:/) , second is SATA , 2 partitions (D:/) & (E:/),


now i added New SATA drive , i partitioned it to one Partition , formated & installed Windows XP

but the problem is that i have the new SATA drive (with OS on) setted as (H:/) drive.

i wanted it to be (C:/), ......


note's: before i added the new drive i used the IDE drive as The OS drive, and the SATA drive as Stoarge

my plan was to remove the IDE drive later and stay with the 2 SATA drives , when the New SATA be the OS (C:/) & the other SATA be followed by (D:/) & (E:/) , as they were before



before i partitoned the new drive i setted in the BIOS BOOT SEQUENCE , as the first boot drive

and the second SATA as the Secondery boot drive, and the IDE drive as Third boot drive.


The IDE drive have a OS windows xp installed also, (i dont know if its the cause)

and i get a boot menu with the 2 windows XPs, one on IDE the second on the new SATA.


anyway how can i change the letters of the new sata drive take the IDEs letter (C:/)

 

[jitpublisher]

This is because you are installing Windows while you already have another drive in the system with Windows installed on it.

You cannot do that.

You also cannot simply change drive letters on a drive with an OS installed on it, that will create many more problems.

When you install Windows onto a different drive in a system with Windows already installed on another drive in the system, you must first disconnect all other drives from the system, install Windows, then plug the other drives back in. Even if you don't have Windows installed on another drive, it is generally a good idea to unhook all other drives until the install is complete, then hook them back up.

 

[makaveli2007]

This is because you are installing Windows while you already have another drive in the system with Windows installed on it.

You cannot do that.

You also cannot simply change drive letters on a drive with an OS installed on it, that will create many more problems.

When you install Windows onto a different drive in a system with Windows already installed on another drive in the system, you must first disconnect all other drives from the system, install Windows, then plug the other drives back in. Even if you don't have Windows installed on another drive, it is generally a good idea to unhook all other drives until the install is complete, then hook them back up.

hi

thanks for your information

if i disconnect or disabling the IDE drive through the BIOS , would the SATA drive be automaticly C:/?

(Cause the other SATA is used for stoarge and already tagged as (D:/) & (E:/)....

*when i try to disable the IDE to see if the SATA drive would take the C:/ letter i get error after the POST screen: "the NTDLR cannot be found restart system CTRL+ALT+DEL"

i guess the boot info file is on the IDE drive (C:/) , same thing happens if i change the BOOT SEQUENCE ....

is there any way that i can edit the boot file to forget about the IDE C:/ & strick to the SATA?

 

[jitpublisher]

You have to disconnect the IDE drive, leaving only the SATA drive connected, and reinstall Windows on the SATA drive. You will have to supply the correct SATA drivers to the Windows install program, as XP does not contain native SATA drive support. So get the proper SATA drivers for you motherboard ready on a floppy, or USB drive ahead of time. If you don't want to do this, or not sure of the procedure, you can simply set the SATA controller in your BIOS to "IDE" or "Native" mode instead of AHCI mode. You will lose some features of the SATA drive, like hot swap ability and native command queing by doing this, but you won't lose any noticeable performance, and XP will be able to see the drive and install without needing any special drivers.

 

[makaveli2007]

You have to disconnect the IDE drive, leaving only the SATA drive connected, and reinstall Windows on the SATA drive. You will have to supply the correct SATA drivers to the Windows install program, as XP does not contain native SATA drive support. So get the proper SATA drivers for you motherboard ready on a floppy, or USB drive ahead of time. If you don't want to do this, or not sure of the procedure, you can simply set the SATA controller in your BIOS to "IDE" or "Native" mode instead of AHCI mode. You will lose some features of the SATA drive, like hot swap ability and native command queing by doing this, but you won't lose any noticeable performance, and XP will be able to see the drive and install without needing any special drivers.

HI

what about the stoarge SATA does it need to be disconnected also? wouldnt it take the place of the IDE If i dont?

Since the IDE drive is already setted as C/: drive with OS installed on, would it clash with the OS installed on the SATA, After i recoonect it?

 

[makaveli2007]

***oo about the SATA driver , you say i can put it on USB drive.
but i heard its only posiable with windows VISTA & later ..

so windows XP ca only install SATA drivers through a floppy drive

 

[jitpublisher]

You may be right about the USB thing, I always used a floppy when I had XP.
No, the old OS won't clash. But you will have to reinstall all your programs to the new OS installation.
Just make sure the IDE drive is not in the boot order when you reinstall it. The new OS installation will find the drive and set it as drive E or H or whatever, and everything will still be on the drive.

 

[makaveli2007]

You may be right about the USB thing, I always used a floppy when I had XP.
No, the old OS won't clash. But you will have to reinstall all your programs to the new OS installation.
Just make sure the IDE drive is not in the boot order when you reinstall it. The new OS installation will find the drive and set it as drive E or H or whatever, and everything will still be on the drive.

thank u man