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No C: drive ?

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13 replies

by brucet

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I got brave - thought I had done okay with 98. New network computer, thought I'd try XP Pro. It was (is) great. This is the first OS I have not had major trouble with.
Two problems though - one is not terrible - Scanner - XP does not want to play with Twain for scanner, I just put it on another network computer running 98.

The thing that is driving me crazy - My boot drive is E: - there is no C: drive. It (XP) will not allow me to change my main boot or system drive designation. This is more of an oddity than a problem. Everything works fine. I am inclined to leave it alone.

Thank you,
Bruce T

13 replies

by dmiles

Check the Scanner manufacturers web site to see if theey have developed drivers to support Windows XP for that product,some manufacturers did not support the upgrade,but released drivers to support new relesased products,this exist with the Canon products,released before XP

How to Change a Drive Letter
To change an existing drive letter on a drive, partition, or volume:
Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then in the left pane, click Disk Management.
Right-click the drive, partition, logical drive, or volume for which you want to assign a drive letter, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
Click Change.
Click Assign the following drive letter (if it is not already selected), click the drive letter that you want to use, and then click OK.
Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the drive letter change.
The drive letter of the drive, partition, or volume that you specified is changed, and the new drive letter is displayed in the appropriate drive, partition, or volume in the Disk Management tool.

by brucet

As I said - I'm not really concerned about the scanner - but the C: drive is a curiosity - and it will not allow me to change drive letter as you suggested. "Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot volume."

As I saidit is more of a curiosity - it is not hurting anything, it is the only hard drive. I have A:, E:, R:, and Z:. I really thought that a computer HAD to have a C: drive.

Thank you,
Bruce T

by ann777

Are your CD drives C & D... if yes, you are probably best off just leaving it as is. The reason is that the registry is going to have these paths to e: for the software and changing the drive isn't going to change all of the registry properly (esp. the hexidecimal encoded entries).

As far as your scanner, if it is a parallel port scanner... don't even bother checking for WinXP drivers. If they are available, the simply will not work under the parallel port interface in WinXP. If you have a USB port scanner, then yes, check and see if the manufacturer has updated drivers available for WinXP and you should be fine.

Legacy devices (parallel port scanners among them) are not supported under WinXP. If this is an HP model scanner (as I have a old parallel port scanner), they actaully wrote (for my model scanner anyway) that it is not supported under WinXP.

by brucet

As I said - I'm not really concerned about the scanner - but the C: drive is a curiosity - and it will not allow me to change drive letter as you suggested. "Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot volume."

As I said it is more of a curiosity - it is not hurting anything, it is the only hard drive. I have A:, E:, R:, and Z:. I really thought that a computer HAD to have a C: drive.

Thank you,
Bruce T

by thechas

Is this the way the PC came?

If so, I suspect that the manufacture has 2 hidden partitions with restore files on them.

On a practical basis, you do not 'need' a C: drive.

Your computer boots off of the first active partition when you boot off the hard drive.

I would query the manufacture, or the person who loaded the software onto the system as to why there is no C: or D: drives.

There may be an error in how they setup the hidden partitions, and that is why Windows is seeing E: as the first drive.

Chas

by brucet

When I got this beast, it had no OS on it. As I said earlier, it was a great install, no problems. This is the first Windows install that was seamless. It has been running for about a monthy and a half - has not locked up once!! I really don't need to change the drive letter - "if it ain't broke - don't fix it" - I am more curious if I have to fix it. I was under the belief that a computer needed an A: drive, and a C: drive.

Evidently XP Pro does not need a C: drive

Bruce T

by wcp

I had this problem before and I had to reinstall Windows XP from scratch to fix it.

However, there is MS KB 223188 that shows how to change System/Boot drive letter.
It is for Windows 2000 but it is worth trying it on Windows XP.
Make sure you back up all your data before you do it.

by ben.t[at]paradise.[windows2003server].nz

XP definitely has no dependancy on C:, I think thats inherited from the NT kernel?
I'm assuming XP was installed via the BootCD method, so in theory there's nothing already 'owning' c:...
Clues might be revealed by using some sneakey partitioning software like partition magic - the disk might have hidden partitions. I'm not sure that a hidden partition deserves a drive letter though.

Well done, that's a curly one.

I think you should re-learn your alphabet. It's really abEdCfg... Didn't you know?
Sheesh, how'd you make it through school?

by noprisoners

I too have experienced this problem. I was replacing a duff HD (C:) I left my 2nd HD (D:) on the same IDE port (IDE 0), with my 2x DVD/CDR on the 2nd IDE port, all set as original. When I installed XP Pro, from the CD, all went fine, but on completion, it decided to make my 2nd HD C:? although it all worked fine, I didn't like the re-arranged drive labeling convention. So the way I got round this was to disconnect the 2nd HD, and re-install from the CD again, this time it made the HD C: no problem. I think my 2nd HD may have had something on it (restore points?) that XP install had found, deciding that that drive was going to be C:? install went fine, although I did have to do the drive-letter-shuffle for the 2nd HD when it was re-connected, in disk management, as the DVD was now occupying the D: slot my 2nd HD usually had. I can see why this would be an annoyance, especially when your used to command line running, E: doesn't feel right for primary does it.

Steve

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