re-installation of windows will not let me have the same drive letter

Hello all, i want to re-install xp (i do it around once a year) on an 200gb hdd that is currently partitioned 80gb (old xp install) and 120gb (data). when i went through the install process, i removed the original partition that was C:\.
after the format the drive letter changed to e:\ (my 120gb partition became c:\ and my other hdd became drive d:\) I know i cant change drive letters of system/boot drives/partitions. however, is there such a way during xp install, that i can put windows as the c: drive, and my data partition back as d: ? or can i put the drive into another computer and change things that way? any and all input would help. thanks

 

ok, so here's my remedy, i am installing xp on the 120gb partition, and when it's done, i will use partition magic to create a new partition and resize them back to the way it was ( i hope), copy the stuff over. do you think there is any probs with that? thanks .

 

Didn't the XP install give you the option of choosing which drive/partition to install on?
I would've thought that if you installed Windows on the freshly formatted partition, it would automatically become C:
Did you delete the original DOS partition (i.e. fdisk) or just format it?

My experience with Partition Magic would suggest that you'd have no problems doing it the way you suggested in your remedy - I've done something similar, although it took a while.

 

during the install, where it asks which partition to put it on, i deleted the partition that was c:, when that happened it automatically changed the other partition on the drive to c:, now i just have to move a lot of data and resize with partition magic. but its just a pain!

 

If you deleted the primary DOS partition, you should then create a new primary DOS partition first, before installing Windows.
I made a horrible mistake once, moving all my data to the D: drive, deleting C: and then formatting C:, not knowing it was my old D: drive.. How I laughed...