How do I change my SATA hard drive letter from F: to C: ?

[Kaizen]

I have a single hard drive (SATA) in my PC on which I've installed Windows XP Pro, however Windows assigns it the drive letter F: instead of C:

The problem is that some (poorly written) software complains that it can't read or write to the C: drive, even though I've changed the installation directory to H: (one of my partitions). Even the Doom 3 Demo installation program fails because of this.

Windows assigns letters C: and D: to two removable USB devices (which I don't have) and E: to my IDE DVD Rewriter, before finally getting to F: through I: for my SATA hard drive (and partitions).

So, is there any way to get the SATA hard drive to be recognised first so that it receives the drive letter C: ?

Thanks

(Mobo: Asus A8N-SLi Premium)

[zulander]

Try going start>run> type mmc>file add/remove snap in>disk manegment>add>make sure its pointing to the local machine and click finish. Right click on the driver and go to change drive letter and paths

[jon bda]

IIRC you can't assign a different drive letter to the drive that has windows on. Seems strange why its happening though...i've had it when i've left other IDE hard drives plugged in but never with just a cd rom etc...

[0iD]

If you manage to change drive letter it'll bugger up the registry anyhow.

[Kaizen]

Originally Posted by zulander

Try going start>run> type mmc>file add/remove snap in>disk manegment>add>make sure its pointing to the local machine and click finish. Right click on the driver and go to change drive letter and paths

Thanks for that, zulander. As jon mentioned, it won't let me change the drive letter that Windows is installed on and 0iD's warning about screwing up the registry is backed up by a Microsoft article.

However, I did manage to use it to change my G: partition to C:, which ironically caused the Doom 3 demo installation to fail even more quickly with an 'Internal Error', altho changing the drive letter back again (without rebooting, so both C: and G: point to the same partition) actually allowed the install to work.

So, thanks for that, as I can now play the demo, altho I've now resigned myself to having to get an IDE hard drive and installing Windows XP Pro on that. I'm just glad that I held off activating Windows, as I'd imagine that a new hard drive is only second in importance to a new motherboard as far as activation criteria are concerned.

Btw, the reason why C: and D: were already taken when I was originally installing Windows was because my floppy drive also doubles as a 7-in-1 memory card reader and uses a USB header on the motherboard, and so would appear to map to those drive letters. So, when I eventually install Windows on the new IDE hard drive, I'll have to remember to temporarily detach the floppy's USB lead during the install process, if I want Windows to be on the C: drive.

Thanks again

[killie99]

You can re-assign the drive letter to C:, I managed to do it but it is a bit of a pain in the butt. See the following thread.
Ghosted disk wont boot XP

[Splash]

Dunno if it still has it (don't use it since it was "acquired" by Symantec) but Partition Magic used to have a pretty good tool for changing drive letters (it made all the necessary registry changes too) - probably a little overkill for what you're wanting to do though.

[printerman]

I need to change a known C drive to a slave. I have two small drives both master, C & E (backup). I have wiped the C drive clean of programs,