Hard Drive Letter Question

[harmonicsa]

I'm not sure if this post goes in this folder, but I have a bit of an issue with my hard drive. The letter it is assigned to is H: and I've been getting some "no disk" errors when I run programs because of it (I think). Should I go ahead and refromat and use C: or would I be okay using the H: drive... I just put together this computer so it doesn't have much on it... comments please! Thanks in advance!

 

[Osiris]

In order to change it, you will have to reformat. Do you have 2 drives or just the one and did you format it yourself or did it come like this?

 

[bla!!]

You don't have to re-format to fix the drive letter issue.

Goto start -> run, type diskmgmt.msc and press enter

Right click on the hard drive you want to change, and click "change drive letters and paths"

Select C: or whatever you want and you're set.

 

[SHAWN]

^

Some programs could be relying on finding itself on h:\ and can cause many issues. The only real way to solve it would be a reload.

 

[Osiris]

You cant.

Error message

Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot volume

 

[TheMajor]

I think you can, using Drive Mapper or a similar tool.

 

[harmonicsa]

I can't do it through Windows XP (same msg Warez said)... I bought the HD new and I only have 1... could it have been the way I plugged in the SATA cable to the HD that caused this? I don't understand why it wouldn't install Windows XP to C: automatically...

 

[TheMajor]

If you are not installing Windows on the first primary partition the drive letter will not become C:

Example:
The primary master is the first disk. If this disk contains a primary partition it will become C:/, even if you install XP to a partition on the second disk (eg secondary master, or primary slave).

 

[harmonicsa]

Was I supposed to switch to C: in command prompt before I installed from the Win CD?

 

[TheMajor]

The best way to make sure Windows uses C: is to disconnect all hard disks except for the one you are installing on. After installing reconnect all other disks. All you have to do then is set the BIOS to boot from the correct disk.