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Can't install XP onto drive C:

W

Wolfmyst

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 10, 2005
Messages
126
I can't install XP onto drive C: because the second partition was made drive C: when I deleted a partition and restarted. I tried loading the computer into the old OS and changing the drive letter but that didn't help. When I install XP, the system is on Drive D, and it won't let me change the drive letter to C:.

Any ideas?
 
I would like to, but there's 80 GB of data on the 2nd partition (now the C drive) and no easy way for me to back it all up. There has to be a system file on that 2nd partition that's telling windows setup which drive has which drive letter. Otherwise, how would it know to keep doing it?
 
When you run the XP setup, it looks for the first formatted partition it finds, and labels it C.

You have two options right now.

1) Install XP to what it's calling D:, and then back your data up, wipe the drive, and start over.
2) Use Ghost onto make an image of the partition on another computer, extract your data from the Ghost image file.

The data can't be that important to you, or else you would have backed it up before messing around with the install.
 
I ran into a similar situation this weekend. As long as you have access to another pc, you can do the following in Computer Manager - Disk Management.

1) delete all other partitions from the drive except the data one.
2) create a new partition at the start of the drive (on the left) and format it (quick format is ok)
3) right-click the new partition and set as active.
4) Open the old partition in windows explorer and delete ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini
5) move drive to new pc, install windows and the drive letters should be right.

The problem is that the older partition is marked as active for booting, and has the ntldr and boot.ini files on it (as well as a flag in the MBR or something.) Setting the new partition as the active one fixes this, but setup might detect the ntldr file and change the old partition to be active again (not sure about that) so deleting those files, or backing them up will stop that happening.

edit: Another part of the problem is that during windows setup, if you create a new partition it is created as a logical partition, which can't be booted from or set as active. You have to remove the logical partition and replace it with a primary one.

 
It's best to run the Windows setup and install it to a blank drive.

However, when you install XP and create a partition during the setup, it is a primary partition, not a logical one.
 
djnes said:
It's best to run the Windows setup and install it to a blank drive.

However, when you install XP and create a partition during the setup, it is a primary partition, not a logical one.
Click to expand...

On an empty drive it creates a primary one, but if there is an existing partition (or maybe if you delete the active partition during setup and recreate it) it will create a logical drive.

 
IanG said:
On an empty drive it creates a primary one, but if there is an existing partition (or maybe if you delete the active partition during setup and recreate it) it will create a logical drive.

Click to expand...
There's never been a situation where you'd want an existing partition on the drive, except for dual booting, so I've never come across that. Mine have always been empty, and have rresulted in primary partitions, like you said.
 
IanG said:
I ran into a similar situation this weekend. As long as you have access to another pc, you can do the following in Computer Manager - Disk Management.

1) delete all other partitions from the drive except the data one.
2) create a new partition at the start of the drive (on the left) and format it (quick format is ok)
3) right-click the new partition and set as active.
4) Open the old partition in windows explorer and delete ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini
5) move drive to new pc, install windows and the drive letters should be right.

The problem is that the older partition is marked as active for booting, and has the ntldr and boot.ini files on it (as well as a flag in the MBR or something.) Setting the new partition as the active one fixes this, but setup might detect the ntldr file and change the old partition to be active again (not sure about that) so deleting those files, or backing them up will stop that happening.

edit: Another part of the problem is that during windows setup, if you create a new partition it is created as a logical partition, which can't be booted from or set as active. You have to remove the logical partition and replace it with a primary one.

Click to expand...

Your solution is closest to what I was hoping for. I fortunately still have my previous version windows xp on still on another hard drive so I can boot from that and delete those files.

The data on my 2nd partition isn't backed up completely, only the stuff I really need back ups for. If I lost it, it wouldn't be horrible, but I'd rather run the risk of losing semi-unimportant data then spend a day backing up everything onto DVD+R disks. I really can't wait for higher capacity optical disks to come out.
 
I thought it gives you the option of where to install if you install from os..
(like upgrade, but full install instead)?
 
Thanks to Ian's post, I was able to get things straight. I however didn't do exactly what he said.

Here's what I did:

1. Plugged in my old hard drive with windows xp on it.

2. Went to disk management, and deleted the new partition with no data on it.

3. Made a new partition the same size.

4. Changed the active partition the new drive.

That's it!

I didn't delete any files on the hard drive, and in windows setup the newly formatted drive was C, while the old one was D.
 
Wolfmyst said:
Thanks to Ian's post, I was able to get things straight. I however didn't do exactly what he said.

Here's what I did:

1. Plugged in my old hard drive with windows xp on it.

2. Went to disk management, and deleted the new partition with no data on it.

3. Made a new partition the same size.

4. Changed the active partition the new drive.

That's it!

I didn't delete any files on the hard drive, and in windows setup the newly formatted drive was C, while the old one was D.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update. I've never tried it without deleting those files, but I guess it's one less step to do in the future.


 
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