Disk 0, Disk 1, Disk 2 =\

I have 3 harddrives, a 40GB WD, an 80GB WD, and a 160GB Maxtor. My OS is on the 40GB WD, and the harddrives are listed in Windows as follows:

Disk 0: 160GB Maxtor
Disk 1: 80GB WD
Disk 2: 40GB WD

My OS drive is disk 2 instead of disk 0. Now I have tried swapping the IDEs and changing the master/slave on the drives but no matter what I do they always appear in the same order in computer management. What is going on here?! Could someone please tell me how Windows determines the disk order?

 

go to control panel, administrative tools, computer management, and change the drive letters to what you want them to be, setting your system drive to letter c. NOTE: you must free the letter before you can assign a different drive to it.

 

The letters are fine the way they are, and my OS is on C: and yet C: is STILL Disk 2. As far as I can tell computer management can only change the drive letter, not the disk number.

 

You will have to boot into your BIOS and change the order and number of the drives from there.

Hold the F2 key (Usually) and boot into Set Up > Drive config

 

F2 didn't do anything. I have an Award BIOS btw. And I have tried messing around with BIOS before. The 40GB WD is set as my first boot device yet it still appears as disk 2 in windows' disk management, while as the 160GB Maxtor is set as my LAST boot device but appears as disk 0? Wtf?!

 

Just because it's your first boot device doesn't mean it will be Disk 0

You have to change the number in the BIOS.

 

My AWARD BIOS is accessed with F1 at startup...

 

I seriously doubt that. For once I just tried it and it didn't do a thing. Second, my BIOS is accessed by pressing Del at startup.

BirdBath, and how do I do that? The only thing having to do with changind disk order that I've found was changing the hard disk boot priority, and that didn't do anything.

 

The disk number is derived from the addressing scheme used in accessing the motherboard's disk controllers. A mobo's controller ports are labeled IDE 1, IDE 2 .... IDE n. Each of these controllers can manage two connections or Targets. We call them Master(M) and Slave(S), either based on a physical jumper bar on the disk drive or through hardware supported cable addressing. Here is how they relate

IDE 1 (M) = (Port:0 Target ID:0 Lun:0) = Disk 0
IDE 1 (S) = (Port:0 Target ID:1 Lun:0) = Disk 1
IDE 2 (M) = (Port:1 Target ID:0 Lun:0) = Disk 2
IDE 2 (S) = (Port:1 Target ID:1 Lun:0) = Disk 3
IDE 3 (M) = (Port:2 Target ID:0 Lun:0) = Disk 4
IDE 3 (S) = (Port:2 Target ID:1 Lun:0) = Disk 5

In your case, your OS is on IDE 2 (Master). Your C:\boot.ini file should verify this.
.

 

You seriously doubt that F1 is not the key I use to access the BIOS? Too funny..

 

I'm not sure about that... c: is currently master on IDE1 and STILL appears as disk 2, while e: is master on IDE2 and appears as disk 0. Another thing - I disabled my two other harddrives from device manager and c: finally became disk 0. When I re-enabled them they became disk 1 and disk 2 so it seemed to be at last solved. However, after one restart, they switched back to their old configuration. =\

 

Ok it is the delete button you press to get into that bios.

 

I KNOW how to get into BIOS! >.=.>

But nothing I could do there could change the disk order.

 

Your statement shows:
IDE 1(M) = Disk 2
IDE 2(M) = Disk 0

My statement shows:
IDE 1(M) = Disk 0
IDE 2(M) = Disk 2

This is exactly the opposite of your posting, Searinox.. That's odd. I wonder if your mobo is mislabeled. It wouldn't be the first time for something like that
You could post your boot.ini file located in the root of your boot drive. In your case, C:\boot.ini would be the one I'd like to see.