Has anyone ever heard of Windows XP Pro x64 ending up on "G" instead of "C"?

[PWScottIV]

OK, so I installed Windows XP Pro x64 corporate edition recently and because it was my first time using this OS, I just assumed it was completely normal that my boot-drive was "G" instead of "C" like I expected it to... However, now I've been having issues with hardware installation programs faulting out and I'm wondering if this could be the problem. Can anyone help me? Thanks

 

[DeaconFrost]

It shouldn't cause hardware issues, but it can cause issues installing some older software. It happened because you have other drives in your system that were assigned C, D, etc during the Windows install. You probably breezed through the partitioning screen, and didn't notice that it was pointing towards G. At that point, you could have stopped the install, disconnected any other HDDs or card readers, and started over. Unfortunately, to get your system volume to be C, you'll need to reload the OS.

 

[LstBrunnenG]

Reinstall without any USB drives of any sort.

 

[Sasiki]

Also unhook any multi-card readers that may have came with the computer. You'll probably have to unhook the jumper from the motherboard. The few I've seen were hard wired on the reader side.

 

[zacdl]

Expanding on LstOfTheBrunnenG: Reinstall without anything else attached other than the hard drive you want to contain C:

As for your question- it will most likely cause problems. Most apps try to look at a C:\ drive when installing- and not having that will cause issues.

 

[Hurin]

As for your question- it will most likely cause problems. Most apps try to look at a C:\ drive when installing- and not having that will cause issues.

I think this is incorrect. Most modern applications will look for the "sys drive" which it gets from Windows, rather than looking explicitly for "C:"

In other words, when you install a game and it defaults to "C:\Program Files\blah". . . the installer has looked in the registry for the default system drive, rather than just assuming "C:"

It's actually unlikely to cause problems. But, personally, it'd drive me nuts and I'd reinstall with no other drives or USB storage media attached.

BTW, this isn't just a 64-bit issue. I've seen this behavior in 32-bit XP.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I think this is incorrect. Most modern applications will look for the "sys drive" which it gets from Windows, rather than looking explicitly for "C:"

Modern applications and programs coded correctly do. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case. The long and short of it, is usually it's a brand new build/install, so there's no real harm in just re-installing to get it back to C.

 

[Wendig0]

When I first installed x64 it did that to me also and made my other c harddrive the c harddrive and the harddrive with the os on it the e or g. What I did was change the name of the c harddrive to like h or e so it isn't that confusing and programs wont install to that harddrive. And really when you install programs it will automatically assume that your main harddrive is called 'c' all you have to do is click on the line where the program installs too and take out 'c' and add 'g'. That simple. I voted for it will cause problems, but only simple problems when installing stuff and not much else. You can live with it, its really not that bad. But however if it bothers you then just reinstall windows again.

I just lived with it till I needed to reinstall windows again in a few months.

 

[larryBird44]

try using fdisk or the vista disk manager to see if anything looks odd

 

[Moofasa~]

Why don't you just change the letter of your drive to C?



If there is a driver already taking up the letter C, change that to X or something insignificant first, then change your main drive to C.

 

[Azhar]

Just an FYI, sometimes you can force a path to be recognized and used by adding their system name in environment variables.

For example, if you were to install the latest version of Apache Tomcat, and we all know how Sun Java loves to rename their directory everytime there's an update, instead of going through every single Apache CONF and INI files and make hundreds of changes to Java's path, you would just have to add Java into the Environment Variables by:

- Rightclicking My Computer
- Properties
- Advanced
- Environment Variables

And adding JAVA_HOME with it's path c:\program files\java\jdk1.x.x_xx

You just need to know the system name a program is using, and just throw it into Environment Variables, and it should be smooth sailing.

 

[Hurin]

Why don't you just change the letter of your drive to C?



If there is a driver already taking up the letter C, change that to X or something insignificant first, then change your main drive to C.

If I recall correctly, doing this with the system drive is a *big* no-no.

 

[SuperSubZero]

Why don't you just change the letter of your drive to C?



If there is a driver already taking up the letter C, change that to X or something insignificant first, then change your main drive to C.

There are about 900000000 settings and files in XP that will not know about this change.

 

[DeaconFrost]

If I recall correctly, doing this with the system drive is a *big* no-no.

Not to mention the fact you'd get a message telling you that it's the System drive, and can't continue.

 

[Moofasa~]

There are about 900000000 settings and files in XP that will not know about this change.

He just installed Windows; there should very few things affected by this.

Not to mention the fact you'd get a message telling you that it's the System drive, and can't continue.

I've done it before on a fresh install of Windows, no problems.

 

[Ranma_Sao]

He just installed Windows; there should very few things affected by this.



I've done it before on a fresh install of Windows, no problems.

Well, assuming you did it with Windows XP or newer, I don't know how that would work. There are several components in Windows XP that set the path in their files, that would fail.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914232

As to the original poster, XP 64 Corporate huh? I don't recall that sku, I only know of XP 64 Volume...

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Wendig0]

When I had this problem all I know is that I couldn't find a way on how to change the drive with the os on it to be named c. But my other drives I could change their names, just not the main one.

 

[LstBrunnenG]

Yes, there is a way to do it. No, don't do it. That is, unless you like BSODs.