Should I reformat to force OS onto drive C:?

[Squisher]

When I put this system together last weekend I had a Flash Card reader installed and the thing took over C: and E: and ....

Win XP installed on H:

When I went to install my old HP 1000 printer the software wouldn't let me install it because it kept looking for temp files on C: The tech support guy just had me install the native drivers that come with sp2 for the HP 970Cse printer. I had already thought of that, but I really didn't want to work through the list of 150 printers before I ran into the one that worked.

How may times am I goin to run into this problem with software as I reload apps? Would I just be better off refomatting without the card reader installed and fdisk to force the OS onto C:?


GA-EP35C-DS3R
Samsung SATA DVD
150 GB Velociraptor
ASUS 8600 GT
and that cheap USB internal card reader that I going to replace because I can barely force a CF card into it.

 

[Fardringle]

If you haven't done a lot with the system yet (i.e. not much installed), I would format and reinstall Windows with the flash reader completely disconnected. You don't HAVE to have Windows on drive C:, but as you have found with your printer drivers, some programs aren't written very well and could cause problems if they refuse to look anywhere else for Windows files and folders.

 

[Athena]

I would just change the drive letter to C:

Right-click on My Computer > Manage
Disk Management
Right click on "H" and change it to "C"

 

[mpilchfamily]

While that will work for other drives you can't do that with the primary drive that has the OS on it. A reformat and reinstall is the only way to get the primary drive as the C drive as it should be. The reason this happened is because of the way the card reader works. With or without a card in it the system will ID the drive as a HDD.

 

[Matt1970]

Originally posted by: Athena
I would just change the drive letter to C:

Right-click on My Computer > Manage
Disk Management
Right click on "H" and change it to "C"

You can't do that. Windows will barf. Once windows goes to another drive letter, you need to format to get it back.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: Matt1970

Originally posted by: Athena
I would just change the drive letter to C:

Right-click on My Computer > Manage
Disk Management
Right click on "H" and change it to "C"

You can't do that. Windows will barf. Once windows goes to another drive letter, you need to format to get it back.

I do believe you can use partition magic to move this but its a risky move