Why did my 680i install Windows on the E disk???

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buffbiff21

Gawd
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Sep 27, 2006
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My boot disk is listed as (E:) and my storage drive is listed as (C:). It should be the other way around. It still lists the boot disk as E when i remove C.

I made sure when i first entered the BIOS that the disks were listed as
1. 150 gb raptor
2. 320 gb st320
3
4
so on....

Can anyone explain why this happened?
 
I believe you installed windows on the E: drive when asked what partition/drive to install it on during setup. A lot times on my main machine windows setup would only allow me to choose my E: drive also and couldn't use the C: drive. I had to unplugg the E: drive so that there was only one physical disk to choose from.
 
yeah that makes sense, but im pretty sure that i partitioned the C drive.... but then again i DID have both drives hooked up when i installed windoze.... and i REALLY dont want to have to reinstal;l.


and lol 500 gigs of porn. thats a grip, dude...
 
Actually, it's a Windows problem more than likely. There are plenty of knowledge base articles on this. Windows will sometimes call the C: drive E: or something else whenever there are multiple partitions on the drive you are installing to. That's why it's generally best to disconnect other drives from the system when installing Windows.

I never partition my main drive, but if you were to do so, it's generally best to create only your C: drive partition and then create the others later. Of course you can't always do things that way for various reasons, but if you search the Microsoft Knowledge base articles on the problem, you should be able to correct the issue and rename your E: drive to C:.

This is generally necessary as having your system drive and Program Files directory with a path starting with E: can and likely will cause you some problems going forward.
 
My guess is your "e" drive is physically connected in a plug prior to your "c" drive or you did not setup your disk priority correctly in the BIOS.
 
xp seems to want to install itself on an ide drive, if there are sata and ide drives present. it will also try to install on a single sata drive before a raid array.
 
DId the drive that you installed Windows on have any partitions before you started setup? or was it clean and you parititioned it during setup?

Windows setup scans the system for any drives/partitions and assigns them letters in the order they are found. So if the drive you installed Windows on wasn't partitioned then setup didn' assign in a letter until you partitioned and formatted it. But since C and D were already taken it assign it E.

Best thing to do is partition and format the drive, then reboot. When setup restarts it'll see the new partition and should assign it the drive letter C.
 
perhaps i am missing something here, but why dotn you just rename the drives throught eh manage in my computer
 
lozaning said:
perhaps i am missing something here, but why dotn you just rename the drives throught eh manage in my computer
Click to expand...

because you can't rename the system or boot devices.
 
Just had the same problem! It's not a 680i problem, its a Window problem. You probably installed Windows onto drive "C" correctly. But as windows comes up it assigns each drive a letter. My problem was I had a card reader installed, so Windows assigned drive letters c,d,e,f to my card reader and "h" to my hard drive. Now you can reasign drive letters to all drives thru right clicking on "my computer" (EXCEPT DRIVE C)! I had to disconnect the card reader and reinstall windows, and everything was fine. Then replugged in the card reader. Hope this helps. [email protected]
 
bigbob said:
Just had the same problem! It's not a 680i problem, its a Window problem. You probably installed Windows onto drive "C" correctly. But as windows comes up it assigns each drive a letter. My problem was I had a card reader installed, so Windows assigned drive letters c,d,e,f to my card reader and "h" to my hard drive. Now you can reasign drive letters to all drives thru right clicking on "my computer" (EXCEPT DRIVE C)! I had to disconnect the card reader and reinstall windows, and everything was fine. Then replugged in the card reader. Hope this helps. [email protected]
Click to expand...

like i said if your HD isn't partitioned when you start setup it won't get a letter. Windows will assign every drive (partition in the case of HD's) it sees a letter and the blank HD will get skipped. Partition and format the drive before you start setup and it'll get "C" assigned to it.

My sisters boot drive was assigned "H" when I built it. So I had to figure out why. I took my own system (which had a 8 in 1 card reader installed like hers did) and put a blank HD in it and boot it from it. C was taken by my own HD, D-G were assigned to the card reader, and H was assigned to the DVD-RW drive. So "I" got assigned to the blank HD after I partitioned, formatted, and installed Windows it. I wiped the drive and started over but this time I partitioned it before I started setup. It got assigned the "C" designation after setup was finished. I did this test cycle a second time, but without the card reader plugged in and the had similar results. But instead of getting assigned "I" it got assigned E on the blank HD phase.

EDIT: Sorry I got the original lettering wrong, optical drives are assigned last. Looked at my notes to make sure I wrote thsi down right and I hadn't
 
I'm pretty sure you can rename the drives after the installation. That's what my brother did.
 
Skunt said:
I'm pretty sure you can rename the drives after the installation. That's what my brother did.
Click to expand...

You can change the volume label, but you can't reassign the system or boot drive's letter.
 
My drive was partitioned/formatted correctly and I still got an "H" or something other then "C" with my card reader installed. Repartitioned/formatted without card reader and other drives and it worked correctly for me. Hopefully with these different threads, maybe one, or a combination will work for you. Good luck!
 
From How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

This is how I have done it when I got sick of disconnecting and reconnecting drives, etc. No warranties expressed or implied when playing with Regedt32.exe.

Microsoft said:
To change or swap drive letters on volumes that cannot otherwise be changed using the Disk Management snap-in, use the following steps.

Note In these steps, drive D refers to the (wrong) drive letter assigned to a volume, and drive C refers to the (new) drive letter you want to change to, or to assign to the volume.

This procedure swaps drive letters for drives C and D. If you do not need to swap drive letters, simply name the \DosDevice\letter: value to any new drive letter not in use.

Back to the top Back to the top
Change the System/Boot Drive Letter
Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.
1. Make a full system backup of the computer and system state.
2. Log on as an Administrator.
3. Start Regedt32.exe.
4. Go to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
5. Click MountedDevices.
6. On the Security menu, click Permissions.
7. Verify that Administrators have full control. Change this back when you are finished with these steps.
8. Quit Regedt32.exe, and then start Regedit.exe.
9. Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

10. Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for "\DosDevices\C:".
11. Right-click \DosDevices\C:, and then click Rename. Note You must use Regedit instead of Regedt32 to rename this registry key.
12. Rename it to an unused drive letter "\DosDevices\Z:". This frees up drive letter C.
13. Find the drive letter you want changed. Look for "\DosDevices\D:".
14. Right-click \DosDevices\D:, and then click Rename.
15. Rename it to the appropriate (new) drive letter "\DosDevices\C:".
16. Click the value for \DosDevices\Z:, click Rename, and then name it back to "\DosDevices\D:".
17. Quit Regedit, and then start Regedt32.
18. Change the permissions back to the previous setting for Administrators (this should probably be Read Only).
19. Restart the computer.
Click to expand...
 
Rhinohelix said:
From How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

This is how I have done it when I got sick of disconnecting and reconnecting drives, etc. No warranties expressed or implied when playing with Regedt32.exe.
Click to expand...

Except that it says in the knowledge base article where this procedure is specified that this can render your system unbootable - I had the same problem and tried this and that was what happened - in the end I just unplugged everything that I didn't need to do the install and reinstalled.
 
When installing windows, all other drives, card readers ect. should be unplugged or disabled so windows will get C:\ as the prime boot and windows storage drive. you can connect other drives, plug in usb card readers ect. after the 3rd boot of a windows install.

I wonder how dell and other OEM's get there usb card readers ect. not to show up in the windows setup with there software?
 
temporalwar said:
When installing windows, all other drives, card readers ect. should be unplugged or disabled so windows will get C:\ as the prime boot and windows storage drive. you can connect other drives, plug in usb card readers ect. after the 3rd boot of a windows install.

I wonder how dell and other OEM's get there usb card readers ect. not to show up in the windows setup with there software?
Click to expand...

They use drive imaging to "install" the operating system.
 
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