Installing Fresh XP

glenn71x

Junior Member
Mar 22, 2005
19
0
0
I am having a weird issue. I decided to reinstall my OS because it was moving way too slow and it was just time for a fresh copy. I have a SATA 2 drive partitioned into 2 drives. One smaller 50 gig that I always use as my OS drive, and one larger 350 gig that I use to store all my data so re installation can be quick and easy. Here is my issue...
When I boot to the Win XP installer it is labeling my OS portion of the drive as the D drive and my data as the C drive. When I install windows then, my Operating system is installed on my D drive along with programs etc. Why is it doing this, and how can I reinstall so my Boot drive is labeled my C drive and my data drive is my D drive?

Thanks All!
 

bruceb

Diamond Member
Aug 20, 2004
8,874
111
106
Just leave the drive you use for your data out of the computer
or disconnected when you do the install of XP .. After everything
is reinstalled, power down, hook up the data drive and that shoud
be all you need to do.
 

Billb2

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2005
3,035
70
86
Originally posted by: bruceb
Just leave the drive you use for your data out of the computer
or disconnected when you do the install of XP .. After everything
is reinstalled, power down, hook up the data drive and that shoud
be all you need to do.

The OP "I have a SATA 2 drive partitioned into 2 drives."

"leave the drive you use for your data out of the computer" ?????

To the OP:
Where is the boot.ini file, data drive (called C or D) or OS drive (called C or D)?

 

BlueWeasel

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
15,943
475
126
Originally posted by: bruceb
Just leave the drive you use for your data out of the computer
or disconnected when you do the install of XP .. After everything
is reinstalled, power down, hook up the data drive and that shoud
be all you need to do.

The way I read it, he's only got a single drive with 2 partitions.
 

bruceb

Diamond Member
Aug 20, 2004
8,874
111
106
You're right .. I misread it .. Only other option then is copy his data off to a temp drive or
cd / dvd, let the os install as a single partition, then split it up as desired and put the data
back where he wants it.
 

glenn71x

Junior Member
Mar 22, 2005
19
0
0
Way too much data to be copied. I have a single drive partitioned into 2. It originally was correct on my original windows installation. For some reason now it is reversed. Is there any negative to having my OS on the D drive instead of the C drive. It just seems weird to me. I have no idea how it suddenly reversed.
 

bruceb

Diamond Member
Aug 20, 2004
8,874
111
106
Check in disk management that the 'C" part of the drive is set to the Primary Partition
You may also need to set your data partition to Inactive while you install the OS
and then be absolutely sure when XP installs you only use the amount of disk space
you allocate to it on the proper partition. After it installs, reactivate your data partition.
I have not tried this, but I think it would work. If it was me, I would backup the data portion
just in case something goes wrong. Even if you need to borrow a drive to do it.
 

nobody554

Senior member
Jan 21, 2006
526
0
0
Originally posted by: glenn71x
Is there any negative to having my OS on the D drive instead of the C drive. It just seems weird to me. I have no idea how it suddenly reversed.

Not that I know of...just make sure your system paths would all point to D: instead of C: for your programs and command prompt and such. I've run with my system partition as F: a while back (don't ask me why, because I can't remember ;)) and the only problem I had was with the system paths.
 

glenn71x

Junior Member
Mar 22, 2005
19
0
0
How about using some 3rd party software like Acronis Disk Director? Will that fix this issue?