New hard drive is F: zip drive is C:

[jherek]

A friend has replaced a broken hard drive, somehow (I wasn't there when it was done, so I don't know what she done - and neither does she!!) the new hard drive, which is the only one, is now drive F:, her zip drive is now C:, so far this has only caused minor, fixable problems - but I fear it may cause problems later. Can it be changed? OS is WinXP.
Thanks for your time...

 

[smah]

This is a fairly common occurence. It is because the zip drive was attached when xp was installed. A little googling or even searching these forums will give you more info. In any case, you can change the drive letter assignments by going to: Start, Run, diskmgmt.msc

 

[jherek]

I looked at that, but the MS article I read talked about changing some registry entries, and suggested that it wasn't a good idea - maybe it isn't as bad as they indicated?

 

[smah]

Do you mean this one?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326683

There's nothing there or in the resolution article (307884) about changing any registry entries.

 

[jherek]

The problem with that article is that although it tells you where to go to change the drive letter assignment, when you try to do it you can't; it won't allow the modification of a system or boot volume. So, although they refer you to that article when C: is assigned to the zip drive - you can't actually do it!!
It seems to me the only way is to re-install XP with the zip drive unplugged...

 

[smah]

Why can't you do it? Have you tried as Administrator (not a user with administrative priveledges)?

 

[smah]

Oops, meant to ask: What's the exact error message that says you can't do it?

 

[jherek]

You can't do it because it won't let you. Give it a go and see...

 

[mainegeek]

Disconnect the zip drive and then boot up. Then shut down and reconnect it again.

 

[wolluf]

Jherek,

Best way to get XP on C: is to backup & do a clean reinstall with the zip drive disconnected. As you rightly say, disk management won't allow you to change the drive letter for system drive. This article

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q223188

(for 2k, but applies to XP too) tells you how to change system drive letter - but there are other consequences (like lots of registry entries which think F: is system drive - all need to be edited to C - which is why I'd recommend a reinstall.

btw - there shouldn't be a problem with XP installed on F: (as it looks after its own 'locations') - I've got it running on F: on a multi-boot machine with no issues (only thing I can think of is some old software insists on installing on C: - which in this case is the zip drive of course. But if your friend hasn't any such software...).

 

[smah]

Aha. Sorry Jherek, you are correct. I never actually tried to change the system drive letter before. In light of this info, I agree with wolluf's post.

 

[jherek]

Thanks for the help people. I'll remove the zip drive and re-install while it's still fairly fresh.