Hi All,

Came across a customer that had a neighborhood child
replace her hard drive and reinstall XP Home. Problem:
the kid didn't realize he had to disconnect the zip drive
before installing XP. So, the root drive is H:
and not C:, making all kinds of problems with installing
drivers, etc..

Question: is there a way to remap the root drive back
to C: or am I looking at a reinstall of XP?

Many thanks,
-T

"ToddAndMargo" <ToddAndMargo@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:OgrbWDf2HHA.5772@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Hi All,
>
> Came across a customer that had a neighborhood child
> replace her hard drive and reinstall XP Home. Problem:
> the kid didn't realize he had to disconnect the zip drive
> before installing XP. So, the root drive is H:
> and not C:, making all kinds of problems with installing
> drivers, etc..
>
> Question: is there a way to remap the root drive back
> to C: or am I looking at a reinstall of XP?
>
> Many thanks,
> -T

Sorry, you'll have to re-install WinXP unless you're prepared
to use a somewhat clumsy work-around: Invoke this batch
file at boot time, using the Task Scheduler.

@echo off
subst C: H:\

This will make the system drive appear under two drive
letters.

Nope, Reinstall with the extra drives removed is the only working
solution. You can't move it back to C because it wasn't installed there.

ToddAndMargo wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Came across a customer that had a neighborhood child
> replace her hard drive and reinstall XP Home. Problem:
> the kid didn't realize he had to disconnect the zip drive
> before installing XP. So, the root drive is H:
> and not C:, making all kinds of problems with installing
> drivers, etc..
>
> Question: is there a way to remap the root drive back
> to C: or am I looking at a reinstall of XP?
>
> Many thanks,
> -T

And lead to nightmares, <g>.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com> wrote in message
news:Oian0Hf2HHA.5980@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>
> "ToddAndMargo" <ToddAndMargo@invalid.com> wrote in message
> news:OgrbWDf2HHA.5772@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> Hi All,
>>
>> Came across a customer that had a neighborhood child
>> replace her hard drive and reinstall XP Home. Problem:
>> the kid didn't realize he had to disconnect the zip drive
>> before installing XP. So, the root drive is H:
>> and not C:, making all kinds of problems with installing
>> drivers, etc..
>>
>> Question: is there a way to remap the root drive back
>> to C: or am I looking at a reinstall of XP?
>>
>> Many thanks,
>> -T
>
> Sorry, you'll have to re-install WinXP unless you're prepared
> to use a somewhat clumsy work-around: Invoke this batch
> file at boot time, using the Task Scheduler.
>
> @echo off
> subst C: H:\
>
> This will make the system drive appear under two drive
> letters.
>

On Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:17:56 -0700, ToddAndMargo
<ToddAndMargo@invalid.com> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Came across a customer that had a neighborhood child
> replace her hard drive and reinstall XP Home. Problem:
> the kid didn't realize he had to disconnect the zip drive
> before installing XP. So, the root drive is H:
> and not C:, making all kinds of problems with installing
> drivers, etc..
>
> Question: is there a way to remap the root drive back
> to C: or am I looking at a reinstall of XP?


No, you can change the drive letter of any drive except the one
Windows is installed on.

By the way, although I run Vista on this machine now, I ran XP here
with the Windows drive being F: (for reasons I don't want to bother
explaining) with no problems at all. Specifically, what problems are
caused by it's being H:?

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Probably.

"Gary S. Terhune" <none> wrote in message
news:OSSDrXg2HHA.1212@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> And lead to nightmares, <g>.
>
> --
> Gary S. Terhune
> MS-MVP Shell/User

> By the way, although I run Vista on this machine now, I ran XP here
> with the Windows drive being F: (for reasons I don't want to bother
> explaining) with no problems at all. Specifically, what problems are
> caused by it's being H:?

Poorly written drives and poorly written software installers
will default to "c:\Program Files" regardless of what
you tell it. They also insist on installing to
"C:\Program Files\Common Files" even if they are
putting their other stuff were you said.

Also, users seldom understand the drive letter conventions
and just use the installers defaults. Causes a lot
of trouble.

And, in this case, a scanner drivers insists on
installing on drive C: (the zip drive).

I will tell the customer to give her computer
back top the kid and have him re-do it, this
time with the zip drive disconnected.

Thank you all for the tip.
-T

On Thu, 09 Aug 2007 11:09:44 -0700, ToddAndMargo
<ToddAndMargo@invalid.com> wrote:

> > By the way, although I run Vista on this machine now, I ran XP here
> > with the Windows drive being F: (for reasons I don't want to bother
> > explaining) with no problems at all. Specifically, what problems are
> > caused by it's being H:?
>
> Poorly written drives and poorly written software installers
> will default to "c:\Program Files" regardless of what
> you tell it. They also insist on installing to
> "C:\Program Files\Common Files" even if they are
> putting their other stuff were you said.


I've seen such issues in the past, but it's been many years since I've
run into such an application. I'm not willing to say there are none,
but in my experience they are very rare.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
> On Thu, 09 Aug 2007 11:09:44 -0700, ToddAndMargo
> <ToddAndMargo@invalid.com> wrote:
>
>>> By the way, although I run Vista on this machine now, I ran XP here
>>> with the Windows drive being F: (for reasons I don't want to bother
>>> explaining) with no problems at all. Specifically, what problems are
>>> caused by it's being H:?
>> Poorly written drives and poorly written software installers
>> will default to "c:\Program Files" regardless of what
>> you tell it. They also insist on installing to
>> "C:\Program Files\Common Files" even if they are
>> putting their other stuff were you said.
>
>
> I've seen such issues in the past, but it's been many years since I've
> run into such an application. I'm not willing to say there are none,
> but in my experience they are very rare.
>

I see them because I only get called when things go wrong.