Hard drive numbering system in XP Pro??

[Bocaire]

I have a question about the numbering system that Windows XP Pro used for hard drives et al.

I recently built a new system, which has four identical 400 GB WD drives installed. The ASUS mobo had 4 non RAID SATA connectors there, and these were used for the four drives. The connectors were numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Before installing Windows, I connected all 4 drives in place. But XP had problems allowing me to format the system drive, before installing XP Pro. Finally, I tried leaving only one drive in place, and XP was happy with that, formatted it fine, and Windows was installed.

I then installed the other 3 drives, formatted them, and all was well. I now had drives C, D, E, and F.

But I'm a bit confused about the numbering system.

XP Disk manager shows the 4 drives numbered as follows

F is 0
C is 1
E is 2
D is 3

When I go into Acronis True Image to image my C drive, it shows the following numbers for my 4 drives. It is a very savvy program when it comes to hard drives, as that's their business.

F is 1
C is 2
E is 3
D is 4

These numbers are in the same sequence, but start with 1, as opposed to 0 in the XP numbering. Everything is offset by 1.

My recollection is that when I removed all but one of the drives during the build process, to install Windows, the single drive left was in the position designated as 2 on the mobo. That drive is if course where XP was installed, as it was the only drive in the machine.

Can someone clarify this whole numbering process. And, is there anything negative about not having the main system C drive as the #1 drive, and the F drive as 0?

Thanks for any info.

Ron Hirsch

 

[linney]

See if there is anything here to help you.

Overview of PNP enumeration and hard disk drive letter assignments in Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825668&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

XP System Partition is NOT drive C:
thread779-641371

HOW TO: Change Drive Letter Assignments in Windows XP (Q307844)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307844&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Under The Hood: Part 5

http://www.sourcemagazine.com/articles/viewer.asp?a=597

 

[Bocaire]

Hi Linney,

Thanks for your reply.

I didn't really spot anything in the links you listed that addressed the situation I was trying to understand.

I'm very familiar with changing drive letters et al, but I've not been able to locate anything that discusses the assignment of the drive "numbers" which Windows assigns to the various drives in a system.

These numbers are presented in the disk management dialog window.

Bocaire