XP Installed To "F" Instead Of "C"

[olds]

A friend installed XP to a machine he built. When the installation was done, windows was on F drive, not C. He just left it and worked around it. Yesterday, his machine locked up while playing Quake and he had to reboot it. It won't boot and he gets an error about a missing .ini file on C drive. I assume the machine is trying to boot off of C but the OS in on F. He needs files off it and can't just format it. I suggested he throw in another hard drive and install XP to it. Then go in and get the files off the other hdd. Is there an easier way to do this?
His present hdd is a scsi.
TIA

 

[MikeMike]

did the bios on the scsi controller mess up? that could be a problem if it doesnt know on the controller what HD to boot from?

 

[bacillus]

suppose he could try booting off the xp cd, go into the recovery consol & try fixboot.
btw does he have a zip drive in his system?

 

[olds]

SCSI controller seems fine.
He does have a zip.
He probably has the hdd installed by now and is trying to get the files off of it.

 

[XBoxLPU]

Did he have any other hard drives connected to the motherboard's ide ? I find it best when installing windows to unplug any other hds besides the SCSI drive


and if he does have any other ide hard drives, You can boot up to the recovery console and copy the data you need

 

[olds]

The SCSI hdd was the only hdd in the machine. He's got his files.
Thanks for the input.