How do I change Drive Letter Windows Assigns to System Drive

Long story short, working on a buddy's computer. I installed Windows XP Pro SP3. My Computer showed the hard drive as C.

Couldn't update thru the Control Panel, but Auto Updates worked. Let them run several times, and brought it up to speed. Last round of updates fixed whatever was wrong with it's ability to update thru the Control Panel. Cool. But it also changed the drive letter to H: Very uncool. I need to install some custom software, poorly coded, that has to go to C.

I put the windows XP install disk back in, and booted off it. Opened the Repair module. When it asked me which installation of Windows I wanted to work on, the only option was C:

So it would seem to me that Windows is applying the H: designation during boot. It was loading a bunch of memory card reader slots in front, as C, D, E, and F. So I unplugged that sucker. But it STILL loads the hard drive as H.

Is there a way to fix this? Is it in the registry? HELP!!!! I am going nuts trying to fix this sucker!

Thanks for any and all help!

Slider

 

Hi

This is easily remedied. It is accomplished in Disk Management.

How to use Disk Management

To start Disk Management:

1. Log on as administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
2. Click Start, click Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click OK.
3. In the console tree, click Disk Management. The Disk Management window appears. Your disks and volumes appear in a graphical view and list view. To customize how you view your disks and volumes in the upper and lower panes of the window, point to Top or Bottom on the View menu, and then click the view that you want to use.

You should be able to right click the C:/H: partition, and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths" or something similar (that's what the option is in Windows 7, unsure if it's exactly the same in XP).

 

Somewhere along the way in Auto Updates, H: must have been chosen as the "new" location.

You can't change H to C, as C is already being used.

I suggest you remove the updates and start that update process again, being careful of EVERY/ALL choices you are given.

 

Actually, H: can be reassigned as C:. However, the drive designated as C: (if connected) will need to be reassigned to an unused letter before changing H: to C:.

 

unplug everything and things will get back to normal. Then re-attach the other drives, if I understand this post properly.

 

Thanks for all the thoughts guys.

I have tried Disk Mgmt. It says it can't change the drive letter assigned to the system drive. So that option didn't work. DANG!

I have also unplugged the card reader that was soaking up the other drives. Didn't work. Dang. Interestingly, with no C: drive being assigned as the card reader was unattached, I still can't change to c:. It's like it is reserved even though it isn't being used.

Ok, so how do I roll back the updates? Perhaps if I roll back the updates with the card reader and the cd drive unplugged, the update that is hosing me will not re-assign. Then after the update I can plug the hardware back in?

Any other ideas?

Thanks again everyone!