XP, Hard Drive Partitions

[Boetto]

Hi got a question about hard drive partitions and XP setup. Have two hard drives, IDE drive and a Sata Drive. I partition the drives in setup C: and D: Sata drive, E: and F: IDE drive. Go to format drive C: and install windows, setup formats E: instead and then allows format of drive C:
and will install on C. From what I understand system partition is on E: and operating system files are on drive C. Why does it do this? Why can't I have C: be system partition and operating system files? Is it a boot order issue in bios? And is there any disadvantage of having it this way?

 

[Baez]

Windows XP doesn't specify a system partition. It installs all needed files to C: so I'm not sure what you mean by system partition.

If you told setup to install to C: it shouldn't have formatted any other partition.