New Drive Setup, Drive Letter Funkyness

[Poontos]

Here is my current setup:

C:\1GB FAT32 (Boot files)
D:\3GB FAT32 (Win98SE)
F:\6GB NTFS (Win2K)
G:\6GB NTFS (WinXP)
H:\6GB FAT32 (Data on the rest)
I:\6GB FAT32
J:\5GB NTFS
K:\4GB NTFS

The order is a bit messy cause of a another drive I setup, which died over the weekend.

Now I have a replacement 80GB HD and I would like to do the following:

Format the partitions in 2K, with a similar setup as above, but I don't want all the drive letters to be even more screwed up (higher).
So my best guess right now is to non assign them drive letters when I create them (or format them) and do that later, but I am
wondering how 2K would treat a formatted drive during an install without a drive letter.

The key is that I can still boot into Win98SE OK and Win2K, the rest I can obviously access unless I formatted a drive or something.

Any suggestions on the best way to accomplish this, without any crazy 3rd party tools that I have to buy.

Thanks!

 

[Pariah]

I'm going to do a lot of assuming here since you left out quite a bit of information. I'm assuming the dead drive was E:, and I'm assuming the 80GB drive you are replacing it with will be one giant partition that you want to be E. If you want the drive to be NTFS, then it is pretty simple, you format the drive in Disk Management, I don't know if it lets you assign a drive letter at that time, but it doesn't really matter. Most likely the drive will be assigned the first letter available at the end of the order (Not E: which is already assigned to a drive). No other drives will be reassigned other letters or bumped down. When that is done just go back to Disk Management and reassign the 80GB drive E: which should still be vacated. If you want FAT32, you can't paritition and format the drive in Win2K, but will have to do it in DOS/win9x. When that is done boot into Win2k, the drive will be detected and assigned the first letter at the end of the chain as above, and you will have to reassign the drive letter manually as above.

 

[kursplat]

Format the partitions in 2K, with a similar setup as above, but I don't want all the drive letters to be even more screwed up (higher).

80 gig going to replace everything? or like Pariah said?
if to replace everything don't format the partion(s) you don't want to see. but is there a reason you don't want h:- k: to be any larger ? if in fact your doing it that way .
good luck

 

[Poontos]

Originally posted by: chuck340

Format the partitions in 2K, with a similar setup as above, but I don't want all the drive letters to be even more screwed up (higher).

80 gig going to replace everything? or like Pariah said?
if to replace everything don't format the partion(s) you don't want to see. but is there a reason you don't want h:- k: to be any larger ? if in fact your doing it that way .
good luck

All those partitions specified are on a 40GB HD. Eventually, the 80GB will be setup similar to the current setup.

Ignore the E: drive. There was an E: already when everything was originally setup. Ignore it.

If I start to setup the partitions and such with my current setup (just plugged the drive in as slave and Windows obviously see's the new drive), I do not want the
new drive to start at where the last drive is setup on the current drive...

Did that make more sense?

 

[kursplat]

If I start to setup the partitions and such with my current setup (just plugged the drive in as slave and Windows obviously see's the new drive), I do not want the

i think i thought i saw you say just what you mean, you think ?
but..... if you make the new drive have just as many partitions as the old drive. install an operating system on the 1st patitoin of the new drive (which should default to D:\ ) . unplug the old drive . it should all line up, except your going to now have an e:\ but no k:\ .
start with 8 and make 8 to replace them.
as a side note--- i would have thought that removing the 2nd drive(dead w\1 partition ?) would have made the partions on the 1st drive(40 gig) revert to d: though j:
good luck

 

[Poontos]

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[Poontos]

Bump