Local disk is not C: ?!?

Hello all,

Well I build a computer for my brother last weekend and all turned out well except one thing. When I installed Windows XP Home I think it partitioned itself onto the hard drive but labeled itself F: instead of C:. Not a big deal I thought but whenever we try to downlaod updated drivers or programs that install themselves they always give us an error with something along the lines of not enough free space on C: which I suppose makes sense to me since our hard drive is labeled F: and there is nothing physically as C: Anyways I want to make things as simple as possible for him as he is not a very computer literate person. So I want to make the hard drive C: vice F:. How do I do this, if we need to do a new reinstall thats fine as it's still a very clean computer with little programs on it.

Here is the Build.

CoolerMaster Stacker 830 Case
PC Power and cooling 750watt PSU
eVGA 680i TR mobo
eVGA 8800GTX
Soundblaster XFi Gamer
Western Digital Raptor 150GB SATA HD
2 GB Corsair Dominator 8500 PC-1066 RAM
ASUS DVD/CD Lightscribe optical drive
Windows XP

P.S. I think maybe windows didnt detect the SATA HD as the main local disk but im not sure. The first thing we did was install Windows XP, then the Mobo drivers, Video drivers, and audio drivers.

Thank you in advance for any help.

zkirby

 

Note: In these steps, drive D refers to the (wrong) drive letter assigned to a volume, and drive C refers to the (new) drive letter you want to change to, or to assign to the volume.

1. Make a full system backup of the computer and system state.
2. Log on as an Administrator.
3. Start Regedt32.exe (or Regedit.exe in Windows XP).
4. Go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices​

1. Click MountedDevices.
2. On the Security menu, click Permissions.
3. Check to make sure Administrators have full control. Change this back when you are finished with these steps.
4. Quit Regedt32.exe, and then start Regedit.exe.
5. Go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices ​

1. Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for "\DosDevices\C:".
2. Right-click \DosDevices\C:, and then click Rename. In Windows 2000 you must use Regedit instead of Regedt32 to rename this registry key.
3. Rename it to an unused drive letter "\DosDevices\Z:". (This will free up drive letter C: to be used later.)
4. Find the drive letter you want changed. Look for "\DosDevices\D:".
5. Right-click \DosDevices\D:, and then click Rename.
6. Rename it to the appropriate (new) drive letter "\DosDevices\C:".
7. Click the value for \DosDevices\Z:, click Rename, and then name it back to "\DosDevices\D:".
8. Quit Regedit, and then start Regedt32 (not required in Windows XP).
9. Change the permissions back to the previous setting for Administrators (this should probably be Read Only).
10. Restart the computer.

 

tjet,

Thanks for the help, we did this and followed the directions very carefully. Now when we power up all we get to is the Windows blue screen, light blue screen with darker blue top and bottom horizontal borders and the windows logo. It hangs there and does not go any further. Attempted to start in last known good configuration as well as safe mode and it does the same thing each time. Any help would be very greatly appreciated.

zkirby

 

Does this computer have a media reader...as in...can (if running) read sd cards or other small media cards? If so, this could cause issues.

I'd recommend, re-installing with just the cdrom drive and the hard drive connected. Once windows boots, then connect the other devices.

 

Did you go into the BIOS menu and check the boot up settings?
As in first boot C:

 

For future purposes, all you needed to do was change the drive letter.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844

 

Gotta disagree, dy. It is NOT a good idea to change the drive letter that Windows sits on. The reason being is that there will be so many references to the original drive letter by programs, and the operating system itself that do NOT get automatically updated when you change the drive letter that there will be all sorts of conflicts and confusion. Also, it would be very hard to manually go through and update these references.

You can see the effects in this thread! The OP changed the system drive letter with registry hacking, and then started getting blue screens.

theefool has made the best recommendation here. You really do gotta start over, and make sure that the system doesn't assign the C: drive to any other device.

 

Registry hack?
Are you one of those who uses hack as a universal verb for computer activity?

 

Not ALL computer activity, just registry 'editing' - no implications toward you intended, tjet

 

I do personally hate the word hack, when it comes to editing the registry. There is no hacking involved, just mere editing for the registry settings.

On a side note, zkirby, any results?