Hard-drive reinstalled to wrong drive

I just re-installed my harddrive (with the wonderful help of Dell {sarcasm}) and now I can't re-install my software for my Dell AIO 942 printer. The jackwitts at Dell had a tech. come in and install my hard drive on the F: drive (instead of the usual c drive), (why, I have no idea) and the CD I have to intall the printer software does not give me an option on "browse .. drive to install" and I get a message "target drive full, delete files to continue download". It's obviously searching for a drive which is blank (no memory, no space etc.). I called Dell and did the rant and they did nada, zip, nothing. Even though I have a 3 yr. hardware warranty and they "assissted" me through this hard drive replacement. Which, of course their technician F&^*ed up by putting the OS on the F: drive.

So, can any of you help me figure out how I can get this CD with the necessary software (scan) to install to another drive? I already downloaded the drivers from the Dell website, but I can't use the scan feature. Dell has not a clue....I have spent holy mother of Jesus, more quality time with Dell in the last week re-installing the harddrive than I have with my two kids! @#$$%^^

 

thanks for the reply Ö

the c drive thinks it's a "removable Disk" and the f: is "local disk". Drive d and e are the cd and dvd drives. It also says g and h are "removable drives" I think those are the usb ports with my scan drive and flash drive (for my wireless netgear). So what's a girl to do? (besides my prior pointless tantrums which got me nowhere with the script readers at dell). oye.

 

oh, and tim to anwser you, i can't change the drive destinations, the stoopid dell install cd for the printer doesn't give me that option. just "install" or "uninstall" or "you're f#$%^^"." well, scratch that last one, but you know what i mean. I mean, come on, any install disk, even for a novice like moi, has usually seen the "browse for folder (to install)" on the installation. What a bunch of crap from Dell to not have that! Even the nice man named "Jamie" cough cough "ganesh"...had to put me on hold for 10, yes 10 minutes to figuure out a solution to this. Which, guess what, they didn't have one!!!!!!!!!!!!! friggen A in a frosted rolling doghnunt!!!!!!!!!

 

Wouldn't changing that screw up the registry? When I told Dell about this problem they put me on hold for quite a while and when he came back he said he was discussing my problem with his supervisor and that changing the drive letters would only create other problems (registry issues). Their solution was to send me another hard drive to reinstall, which I don't think I have the patience to do since this last one was so stressful to complete.

I tried something else with the printer software; I downloaded it on my daughters computer and then copied it onto a disk and then on to my computer. So the files are all there, except it's not really "installed". Is there a way to do that? I clicked on the .exe files but nothing happens.

 

Tim, I just checked out your link to "Application mover". As I mentioned above, my C: drive is showing that it's a "removable disk" with no space and no memory. And the printer software chooses c: as the "target drive". Changing the drive letters would do nothing, right?

 

The dell tech. brought the new drive, put in in the tower and started the install. He told me there would be a few prompts such as time zone etc. and it would be simple to finish the remainder of install, and he left after 45 mins. I don't know what an IDE ribbon is or where it's located, can you tell me? I have one hard drive and the two removable "drives" were for my scandisk (flash card) and I'm assuming my usb with my netgear wireless adapter. What I think happened is when the tech. started installing the new drive, he didn't unplug my usb connections and the format got "re-routed" to F drive. That is just a guess from what the tech on the phone was trying to explain to me when I was trying to install the printer software. I have two other drives which are D: (cd rom) and E: (dvd burner). My previous hard drive was on the c: and the removable was f:

 

ok so let me get this straight. r u saying laura that windows is now installed on the f: drive?

 

Tim, I'm technically challenged, I have gone into the bios with the dell tech helping over the phone. Please don't ask me to open the tower, it's all gobblygook to me. I went into disk management and it says:

f: Partition basic NTFS Healthy system 232.82 GB and 216.93 GB free space

disk C:
G:
and H: all said removable

d: DVD ROM
e: DVD ROM


Prankz, yes, the OS Win XP is on the F: drive.

 

i was gonna suggest that too tim...laura remove all removable devices. btw, whats currently on c drive then?

 

I have a friend with the SAME problem - she bought a computer from a guy who owns an "expert" computer repair/installation company. He sold her a computer that has the OS on the F drive (No C drive whatsoever), and of course, none of her non-office programs will install or run correctly. She also cannot do a backup. This has been going on for 9 months, and he blames her, rather than fixing it.

His response? As for the installation on the F Drive two things: one it is safer from hackers on installation of Trojan horses and spyware since they usually put the programs on the c drive and additionally this was actually Microsoft for about six months setup all SATA drives up on a new install on the F: Drive because of how the hardware was access from the motherboards and left the c, d, e drives open for standard ide drives.


What can she do???

 

well jenna, if shes tech savvy she could try to reinstall the OS....

 

She's totally NOT tech savvy. I am a bit, but I am nervous about doing this myself, since we can't even do a real backup, with the current setup.

Would it mean physically moving the drive?

And with regards to the "expert";s comments - is he just trying to tech-babble her into submission? Or is there any truth to it?

 

I found the following answer: creating a "virtual" C drive on the F drive, so those programs needing a C drive will work.

anyone ever try this?

http://ask-leo.com/i_have_no_c_drive_but_some_programs_insist_on_it_what_can_i_do.html

 

hes bascially as you said 'he just trying to tech-babble her into submission'. if you protect urself properly, then theres no need to worry about having windows on C: drive.

it just might work. never tried though so cant say for sure....

 

I tried the virtual C drive.... and it WORKED!!!! ( I can log into her compuer remotely). THe programs all work now, and it took me less than half an hour.

WOOHOO!!

 

well done jenna!

 

Thanks! I will have to kee that process in mind, in case I ever run into another client of his, lol!

 

Even tho this seems to be solved: I've seen this same situation happen several times when windows is installed on PC's with media readers installed for SD, Flash, etc., and with ZIP drives also, for some reason windows will sometimes see the media readers/ZIP drive first, and the hard drive later in the setup sequence, making the reader or ZIP come up as C:, D: and so on and labeling the hard drive last (as E: or F: etc...). When I'm installing Windows on a PC with a ZIP drive or a media reader, I always disconnect the ZIP/Media reader until after the OS is loaded, then reconnect it after I've loaded all the drivers.....

Just an interesting tid-bit of info that someone may find useful.....

hopperdave2000

 

I'm having a similar issue to this now, I unplugged everything, and I'm still left with my E drive as my main drive. Tried Disk manager and I can't change the E to a C, is there anything I can do to fix it?

I'd rather run on the c, haven't had problems yet, but want to fix this before I get any!

 

The PC that I'm using now has XP installed on the F: drive, and doesn't give any problems installing printers or scanners.