Windows XP drive letter selection

C

c1001

Gawd
Joined
Oct 24, 2004
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I built two systems over the weekend. Both have Windows XP Home (SP2) installed. On the first system the HDD shows up as the usual C drive in "My Computer and Windows Explorer and the CD drive is the D drive. On the second system the HDD shows up as F Drive. C and D are some unkown USB removable devices and E is the CD drive. I do not know what those removeable USB drives are. I do have a card reader and front USB ports that are plugged into the USB connectors on the mobo, but nothing else. No pen drives or any other USB devices. Any ideas?

How does windows select drive letters? Do BIOS settings and order make a difference with Windows naming drives? When installingWindows, I didn't get a prompt to name my drive(s). Is there some way to reorder the drives so that the HDD is the C drive? I know that simply renaming the drive doesn't work.
 
unplug the usb attachments then reinstall the OS....its seeing those as removable drives.
 
The above suggestion will work, but it always amazes me that people are suprised by this. During the XP setup, when you choose a partition to install XP on, it clearly displays the letter it will be given. XP's setup picks the first available partition to install, even if it has given C: to something else. When in doubt, unhook all other HDDs and card readers until XP is installed, and pay attention to the partitioning screen.
 
nomak said:
unplug the usb attachments then reinstall the OS....its seeing those as removable drives.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. However, I have installed Windows on new systems with the same USB connected front audio and card readers before. They have never shown up like that before. Lesson learned.


djnes said:
The above suggestion will work, but it always amazes me that people are suprised by this. During the XP setup, when you choose a partition to install XP on, it clearly displays the letter it will be given. XP's setup picks the first available partition to install, even if it has given C: to something else. When in doubt, unhook all other HDDs and card readers until XP is installed, and pay attention to the partitioning screen.
Click to expand...

Amazingly, I did not setup a partition. That's good info though. Thanks for the help.
 
If you right click on 'my computer' and select 'manage', then choose 'disk management' you'll have the option to reassign drive letter designations. This makes a lot more sense than reinstalling your OS.
 
NoEcho said:
If you right click on 'my computer' and select 'manage', then choose 'disk management' you'll have the option to reassign drive letter designations. This makes a lot more sense than reinstalling your OS.
Click to expand...
Ah yes, the same usual suggestion that's made without any verification. This is always suggested, but the fact remains, you can't change the system volume using this method.
 
djnes said:
... but it always amazes me that people are suprised by this. During the XP setup, when you choose a partition to install XP on, it clearly displays the letter it will be given. XP's setup picks the first available partition to install, even if it has given C: to something else...
Click to expand...
What amazes me is how the XP's setup screws this up in the first place. Who the hell doesn't want the OS on C:, and why make the default the oddball?

NoEcho said:
If you right click on 'my computer' and select 'manage', then choose 'disk management' you'll have the option to reassign drive letter designations. This makes a lot more sense than reinstalling your OS.
Click to expand...
It'd be nice if it worked... You cannot unmount the OS's volume.
 
Phoenix86 said:
What amazes me is how the XP's setup screws this up in the first place. Who the hell doesn't want the OS on C:, and why make the default the oddball?


It'd be nice if it worked... You cannot unmount the OS's volume.
Click to expand...


And indeed, why put removable, non-floppy, drives before hard drives in the first case?
 
Yeah, I can verify that "disk management" won't let you reassign the drive letter. The option is greyed out. Granny is going to have to live with an F drive. The best that I can do is the reassign those USB drives so that they appear after F whenever she saves anything.
 
HHunt said:
And indeed, why put removable, non-floppy, drives before hard drives in the first case?
Click to expand...
I don't know... The convention has always been a:\, b:\ floppy drives, c:\ OS, so perhaps they are treating it like that. But with 4+ drives with that one device it doesn't fit the convention....

I don't see them trying to put CD drives as b:\. Make up your damned mind would ya Mr. XP setup! :D
 
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\F:".
14. Right-click \DosDevices\F:, 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\F:".
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.
 
Won't that do bad tings to anything that has stored a path containing the old drive letter?
(Shortcuts, registry settings, ini files etc.)
 
HHunt said:
Won't that do bad tings to anything that has stored a path containing the old drive letter?
(Shortcuts, registry settings, ini files etc.)
Click to expand...
Depends on in the use %windir% or hard coded pathes. It may work, may not. format and reinstall is the best solution. The system JUST got setup, there is little lost in a reformat.
 
HHunt said:
Won't that do bad tings to anything that has stored a path containing the old drive letter?
(Shortcuts, registry settings, ini files etc.)
Click to expand...
Yes, a system would be unstable, at best, if this guide were followed. There's too many variables to worry about. The best thing is to re-install, and practice some patience when reading through the XP installation screens.
 
It could be unstable, but I suggested it only because he said that he just installed windows, so I assumed very little or nothing else has been installed yet.
 
I agree that the safest thing to do is reinstall Windows. When you create a partition, just make sure to note the drive letter is C: before you continue. ;)
 
thebone.ht said:
It could be unstable, but I suggested it only because he said that he just installed windows, so I assumed very little or nothing else has been installed yet.
Click to expand...
Right, but if the system is unstable, what's the point of continuing? You'd probably just reformat at that point anyway.
 
thebone.ht said:
It could be unstable, but I suggested it only because he said that he just installed windows, so I assumed very little or nothing else has been installed yet.
Click to expand...
All the more reason to reformat now instead of later. If you just installed it, you haven't spent much time & your not going to lose anything.

If you discover a critical problem 2 mothns later...
 
Everyone seems to be bashing my response. :D I will just say for the record, I would reinstall windows. It shouldnt take too long. The last time I reformatted , I was back up at full strength in under 3 hours - not a quick format either and that includes all ms patches and other apps. I mostly just posted this to show that you CAN change the system drive letter, not that i recommend it. Maybe I should have stated that in the previous post.
 
I missed the fact that it was the system drive on a discrete secondary system that was misplaced, (I was thinking dual-boot or something). Given that, and given that it was a fresh install, then reinstall makes sense.

I suspect the option for remote/usb boots is the reason for the default variability of the OS drive.
 
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