Boot volume drive letter

A real kludge, but could work.

Create a small (8MB or so) partition on RAID array and format it from within XP Home. Then try installing XP Pro on remainder of array.

Dalton

Two things I would do.

First, I have found that having some SCSI devices connected during install cause this sometimes, so try pulling the Tape Drive during install and then adding it back.

Second, I would be curious if there is any non-existant device that is still ghosted in device manager. As per this KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q315539

"
Device Manager displays only non-Plug and Play devices, drivers, and printers when you click Show hidden devices on the View menu. Devices that you install that are not connected to the computer (such as a Universal Serial Bus [USB] device or "ghosted" devices) are not displayed in Device Manager, even when you click Show hidden devices.

WORKAROUND
To work around this behavior and display devices when you click Show hidden devices:
1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
2. Type the following command a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
3. Type the following command a command prompt, and then press ENTER (where %SystemRoot% is the folder in which Windows XP is installed):
cd\%SystemRoot%\system32
4. Type the following command a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
start devmgmt.msc
5. Troubleshoot the devices and drivers in Device Manager.

NOTE: Click Show hidden devices on the View menu in Device Managers before you can see devices that are not connected to the computer.
6. When you finish troubleshooting, close Device Manager.
7. Type exit at the command prompt.

Note that when you close the command prompt window, Window clears the devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 variable that you set in step 2 and prevents ghosted devices from being displayed when you click Show hidden devices.
"
Good Luck,

razz

You need to remove any external drives such as the Iomega which tends to grab drive letters first before installing XP.

You will need to repartition, reformat and reinstall XP again so it will go onto C:.

Have you tried simply going into the Disk Management snap-in and reassigning the drive letters how you want them?

In case you don't know, right-click My Computer, select Manage, the Disk Management from the tree. You can right-click any drive in the lower pane to change drive letters.

Razz,

If I remove the SCSI Iomega Tape drive, which is E in Windws XP Pro, there would be one less drive letter. If I then install Windows XP Pro, it might be installed in E not in G.
Please clarify this.

Good point about the system drive. I see what you mean. When I've moved programs between drives, as in copy the program folder, or changed CD-ROM drive letters, I would just change the drive letter references in the registry. It's not pretty, but it works. You seem to want the same result: to get the programs working from a different drive letter.

You could try going into regedit and searching for the drive letter you want to change. It is easier if you do this on a per program basis because you can look for part of the path name as well to narrow the search. Of course, this may not work with all programs, depending on where they store their config, most should be in the registry, but some may have ini files of other custom data files. You may still be able to edit those too though.

You have 3 choices as I see it,
1. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3BEN-US%3B223188
2. use third party software to manipulate the drive letters.
3. bite the bullet and reinstall the programs.

JAYGIB9,

1. I already tried it as I mentioned in my post.

2. Can you give me a link to the third party site?

3. Reinstallation of programs will do.

Let me clarify the "remove the tape drive" bit for you...

I think someone else hit on this too as it is a known issue. SCSI drives screw up drive assignment. The fact that the Tape is E: in XP Pro does not matter because XP Pro will be reinstalled. Your C: & D: are used. That leaves E: for the CD. I know, the CD is now G: but I think that is due to the SCSI taking a lower letter first. It should have snagged E:, leaving F: for the CD and G: for Pro. The SCSI jumped up one letter. All I can say is I have seen this more than once when a SCSI drive that is not the install drive is installed. Install them after XP is good.

One more note. Did you check for any ghosted items?

Good Luck,

razz

Razz,

I wish you had answered sooner.

The Windows XP Pro was already reinstalled (in F) and I was not in luxury to test your reasoning. I had one option that I came up with after I posted my question. What it came down to was either to test my option or to wait your explanation before I rated your answer.
My option was to create a partition (using a Partition Magic) in RAID HD and make the partition G by changing the CD letter to something else beforehand. Then I ghosted the Windows XP Pro to the new partition and booted from it. It worked. I then deleted the partition (F).

This question was closed by the author