OOPS-- my hard drive is F; my zip drive is C-- windows XP

[PrineFan]

I installed Windows XP on a new build... my hard drive came out being the F drive, and the zip drive is the C.... I can easily change the zip drive to a different letter--but i can't change the hard drive to C-- i get a message that I'm not allowed as I guess that's the drive that windows is stored on....

Any advice please?

 

[Haden]

I'm not sure about simple solution, but you can disable/disconnect zip drive while installing, then connect it back.
I had similar problems with SCSI/IDE, booting from WindowsXP CD made setup think IDE will be boot drive.

 

[PrineFan]

 

[bacillus]

I think he's suggesting you disconnect your zip, bootup & let windows try to sort it's drive lettering then reattach your zip.

 

[wlee]

I had that exact prob installing on my machine. DiskManager would not allow a change of the OS volume name. I ended up disconnecting the Zip drive, nuking the HD, and re-installing. After the install, I reconnected the zip and now boot drive is C: and Zip is F: This seems to be a bug in the WinXP installer since the Zip is Device 5 and HD Device 0. It should pick the lowest disk device as C:

 

[PrineFan]

I disconnected the zip drive and the hard drive is still labeled F

I don't understand what you mean by "nuking" the hard drive.

I am at a loss -- do i re-format the hard drive, and if so, how? I tried to do that from windows but it said i had programs running on the C drive (I assume windows was running) and it wouldn't allow me to format-- do i somehow get to a DOS prompt? then type C: format or something??

Very confused here.

 

[Haden]

If you disconect your zip and boot to windows I don't think it will reasign drive letters (it won't for sure if your partitions are NTFS), but you can give a try.
If it doesn't help I would reinstall windows with zip disconnected (just like Wlee did).

P.S. I do NOT suggest using Partition Magic to reasign letters, last time I tried WinXP didn't boot up.

If you think you'll have problems reinstalling (if you've never done it), maybe it's not worth your time (I mean you can leave letters as they are now)

 

[jpetermann]

I did the same thing on my first install of XP. I had to disconnect the ZIP, reformat and the reload XP. I did it by removing the partition of the drive and then booted to XP cd and started the format. Sorry to bear the cad news. Hopefully SP1 will fix this.

 

[PrineFan]

I am not sure what you are saying when you say "while I am installing"---

are you saying i should disconnect the zip drive, and re-install windows XP????? and after it's installed, then connect the zip drive?

if you are saying i need to reinstall windows XP, can anyone give me the way to do this? it's a new build-- haven't even closed up the case yet, or got online to register the software. should i just re-format the hard disk and then install windows like i initailly did by make the CD-Rom the boot drive in BIOS?

thanks for any help--kinda confused here.

 

[SHealy]

I had exactly the same problem when I installed one new machine with an 100 MB internal Zip drive using XP. I didn't notice it until I had a bunch of other software loaded. I got a copy of Partition Magic (PM) 7.0 at Fry's for $9.00 after rebate. This seemed to fix the problem OK. I did run PM's drive letter change program and I also had to hand edit a few registry entries to the correct (new) drive letters.

If it isn't too much pain, I would still recommend doing another XP install without your Zipper installed.

 

[Taylorm]

its no big deal if it isnt C:

i had my cdrom C: and my harddisk F: once. i didnt worry bout it.. just waited till the next time i needed to format

 

[PrineFan]

yes-- i want to do an entire new install-- i haven't even closed up the case from building it-- i'd love to reformat the hard drive and just start from scratch---- only with my zip drive not connected....

but i can't run fdisk or format or anything... and can't seem to find directions i can understand....

it seems once windows XP is on, it's on for good...

i made a system boot floppy-- then changed bios to boot from floppy-- then typed fdisk--- that's not on the system disk for xp-- then i read to get the boot disk from windows ME-- that would have fdisk on it-- that's didn;'t work....

i've never seen the beat of it-- and microsoft's home page is of no help either...

thanks for replying tho-- i'm scratching my head here-- just a simple re-format of the hard drive then reinstall of windows XP is all i want to do

 

[zodder]

hehe. Glad to see I wasn't the only one with a crazy install. For some reason, XP installed itself on my "I" drive, after all the other partions and cd-roms. Since I haven't had any problems with it, I decided to just leave it.

 

[bonkers325]

<< hehe. Glad to see I wasn't the only one with a crazy install. For some reason, XP installed itself on my "I" drive, after all the other partions and cd-roms. Since I haven't had any problems with it, I decided to just leave it. >>



puts reminder not to use zip

 

[mjquilly]

I think the XP install CD lets you partition/format before actually installing the OS. Try booting from the XP cd and see if that works. Otherwise, you can get a win98 bootdisk from here and that will have fdisk on it. Sorry I can't be totally sure on this - I've only installed XP once and I did it as a favor on a friend's machine, but that should work.

 

[damngood]

Yes, you have to reinstall WinXP all over again.

Pop the WinXP CD into your drive and tell your BIOS to boot off the CD.

Once the WinXP installation program starts, follow all the prompts. You'll eventually get to the screen that will let you reformat/repartition your hard drive.

 

[PrineFan]

well, i booted off the cd-rom after placing the windows XP disk in-- all it did was take me to the windows XP home page as if i had booted normally.... there was no install program.

this has really have me baffled-- either the ideas i understand do not work, or the ideas given i have no clue what they mean.

i went to home page of microsoft-- they explained how to do this, but they said i have to log on as an "adminstrator." No explanation on how to do that, mind you. This keeps getting worse and worse.

 

[dbwillis]

This has happened to me before on a 2k install, I had to remove all the drives (Zip, etc and then run the install again, delete the original install and redo it)

 

[iluvdeal]

I had something similar happen to be when I was making my dual boot machine. I put 98 on C, D was was assigned to cdrom, E my burner. I didn't partiton the area of my hdd where XP was to install to thinking I'd let the installer do it. I installed XP from within 98 and indeed it did let me choose the unpartitioned space where I installed to. It labeled the drive F:. Nothing wrong with having it labeled F: but I find it annoying so I reinstalled, this time using Partiton magic to create the partitions in 98. I guess the moral of the story here is if you use XP's installer to create a partition from unpartitioned space, it'll use the next available drive letter. Either remove the other drives or partition it before hand.

 

[RobSan]

I am using W2K, but it works the same in XP: go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Disk Management, right-click on the drive you want to change and use the "Change Drive Letter and Path" option. You don't have to reinstall everything.

 

[damngood]

It sounds like you weren't able to boot off of the WinXP CD. Usually, to boot off the CD, you'll have to press a key. Like for mine, it says, "Press any key to boot off CD"

If you're still not able to boot off the CD, try this: Turn on your computer and keep pressing F8. This will give you more boot options. If I remember right, there should be an option for command line. After it boots into the command prompt, type "/?". This will bring up a whole bunch of commands you can do. I think the one you want will be "diskpart"

Good luck.

 

[PrineFan]

Bill Gates wins---

after much cussing and moaning I was able to reinstall windows XP-- went to website and downloaded boot file -- only took 6 floppies--

of course, the hard drive is now D, not F, but it's closer to C, and for all the aggravation I went through, it's not worth it.

suffice to say, other than an operating system, I will never buy a microsoft product again-- be it keyboard, mouse, software, anything-- but i'm stuck with windows.

thanks for all the help you all provided-- i appreciate it