Changing drive letter TO my C: drive

[DREDIOCK]

For whatever reason when I installed XP on my new hard drive it assigned the drive to letter E instead of C
It assigned C: to my printer (Im assuming the card reader ports)

Hasnt been a problem till recently when I've wanted to install a couple of things that will only install to my C drive.

Is it safe to reassign the drive from E to C or is this going ot cause all kinds of problems with the machine booting?

[Krusty]

I'm not *sure*, but I think it royally screws things up.

Also, all registry entries will be incorrect, all program shortcuts, or internal associations (say they use shared files or whatnot) and all drivers will be associated with the wrong drive.

Again, I'm not *sure* but I tried something like that long ago and it wouldn't even let me change it.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

You're better off unplugging every external device, formatting that drive and reinstalling the OS again.

[DREDIOCK]

How about this.

I unplug the device now listed as my C drive.
I partition my hard drive and make that partitian my C drive
then reinstall the device currently listed s my C drive.

Will that work?

Or install another hard drive and make that my C: drive?

I have an old hard drive laying around I'd like to retrieve some data off of anyway

I REALLY am trying to avoid reformatting and reinstalling XP

[Tigger29]

Windows won't let you change the drive letter of the system drive...  it's going to be E: no matter what you do, until you repartition, reformatr, and reinstall.

Yes.. make this a lesson learned.. do not have ANY external devices (except keyboard, mouse, and monitor) plugged in when installing windows.  After the install is up and running and fully updated, plug in and install each device one at a time.

[DREDIOCK]

Ok how about if I just use another hard drive I have laying around?
I can assign that as my C drive and accomplish the same thing yes?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

In the event of having an extremely badly coded application that would force you to install on C: that would do the trick i.e. install a second hd and change the drive letter to that instead of changing the actual system hd.

What on earth refuses to install anywhere but c:?

[OOZ662]

I've got the lovely setup of one IDE and one SATA drive installed. Because IDE takes priority over SATA (on my MB at least, dunno about others) and I want the slower IDE only to be a "stash-stuff-on-it-drive" with the SATA the "performing" drive, I get to have Windows on D:\. Everything, of course, tries to install to C:\.

[NHawk]

Drediock...

So far as I know, there's nothing that requires a C drive installation. Somewhere during the install process it asks where to install. If it doesn't give the option to BROWSE to a new location, you can usually just change the C to another letter during the install.

IE: The only thing on my C drive is Windows, everything else is on D.

[llama]

I haven't had a Windows installation where Windows was on the C drive in years, and I have NEVER encountered anything that can't install to D, E, F, or whatever Windows was on that machine.

What program are you talking about that won't install?

-Llama

[BaldEagl]

I went digging around the MS knowledge base and the Internet for you and, while there are instances where people claim to have successfully changed their boot drive letter, most of the proceedures warn that using them may cause your system to become un-bootable.  The only one I found that looked like it might work involved manually editing the registry (and carried the same warnings).

I'd re-format and re-install Windows if I were you, or live with the drive letters assigned.

[DREDIOCK]

Actually When verizon installed Fios they wanted to install some sort of diagnostic software and had to do it on my wifes machine as it would only install to the C drive
Thats ok I really didnt want it on my machine anyway. but at the time didnt know if it was something I HAD to have on one of the machines.
So let my ife have it. Between her and my daughter downloading all kinda crap onto her machine the worst that can happen I I get to clean it out every month or so just like usual.

As for me.
Yes its an old program Im wanting to install "Age Of Rifles"
And that will only install to the C drive. it gives no other options to change it..

Really not a HUGE issue as I have a couple of old hard drives I wouldnt mnd retreiving some data from
And this gives me the excuse to do that.

Just wasnt sure if I was going to run into this same situation in the future.
And if I am. I might as well have a C drive

[llama]

Here's what I would do:

For those rare programs you have that require C access:

1. Insert a blank memory card (SD, CF, or whatever) into the card reader that lives on C.

2. Install whatever has to live on C onto the memory card.

3. Copy the files from the memory card to a folder on your Windows drive (E, F, or whatever).

4a. Change the windows shortcut that was point to C to the new drive. Or...
4b. If it was a DOS program, open a command prompt window (AKA Windows' DOS prompt) and run the program manually from the hard drive after moving it.

Or just leave the memory card in C and make sure it is there for those rare times you want to run something from it.

-Llama