Ahh, drive letters, help!

E Man · Post by **E Man** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 12:26 am

Ok, here's the issue:
I just got done building a computer for a friend. The following are the drive connected:

- CD-RW
- Hard Drive
- Zip Drive

The first time I looked in My Computer after installing Win XP, I noticed something odd: The Zip Drive was the C: drive, the CD-RW was the D: (which is normal), and the primary master hard drive was labeled drive E:. This angered me slightly because I know my friend will have a fit if things are not how they normally are (you know, with the HD as drive C

. Anyway, in Drive Management, I attempted to change the drive letter of the hard drive, first changing the zip drive's letter to F: . (I thought maybe it would conflict with me trying to change the hard drive to drive C: while the zip was still drive C

. Now, when I went to change the hard drive's letter, it of course told me, "Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot volume."

What do I do? I need to get the hard drive's letter changed from E: to C: . In case you're wondering, I tried booting the computer with ONLY the hard drive connected (I disconnected the zip and CD-RW drives) and its letter remained E. The hard drive is on the master connection of the IDE cable and is the only device on that cable.

I would appriciate any help!

Thanks,

E Man

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 6:25 am

I've had this happen too because it sees my ide hard drives first, then my raid HD's. I just reinstalled the whole thing.

I cant think of anything else, then or now, that might work.

E Man · Post by **E Man** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 11:55 am

There has to be a way to fix the drive letters without wiping out the computer and starting over.

Onethenumber2 · Post by **Onethenumber2** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 11:58 am

You might be able to find a program that can change the names from DOS or something.

Set · Post by **Set** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 5:41 pm

you can change drive letters with pariton magic and it will also update all programs ect to the new drive letter

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 7:12 pm

Just for giggles try swaping the IDE cables at the motherboard. Sounds like you have the hard drive on the second channel.

E Man · Post by **E Man** » Mon Nov 04, 2002 5:45 pm

Didn't work. I resprted to simply formatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows XP without the Zip Drive connected.

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Mon Nov 04, 2002 7:11 pm

good deal.

my opinion is that is takes so little time to install... with a problem like that best to just reinstall before you get going.