partition trouble

[varunprabhakar]

i ve 160 gb hdd with 4 partitions originally c: 10 gb, d : 40 gb, e : 40 gb, f: 63 gb.
i had win on 10 gb c: partition.
now when i reinstalled windows by frmatting the 10 gb partition \, it bcame g : drive. i want my windows partition to b c: drive. i am going to reinstall windows again.
so wot should i do so tht my windows partition bcomes c again when i reinstall it.
and is it possible to save my updates to some folder so tht when i reinstall win instead of downloading frm net i can do it from my other hdd. if possible how to do tht.

[sam9s]

Originally Posted by varunprabhakar

i ve 160 gb hdd with 4 partitions originally c: 10 gb, d : 40 gb, e : 40 gb, f: 63 gb.
i had win on 10 gb c: partition.
now when i reinstalled windows by frmatting the 10 gb partition \, it bcame g : drive. i want my windows partition to b c: drive. i am going to reinstall windows again.
so wot should i do so tht my windows partition bcomes c again when i reinstall it.
and is it possible to save my updates to some folder so tht when i reinstall win instead of downloading frm net i can do it from my other hdd. if possible how to do tht.

Boot from the winxp cd, accept the agreement and choose the drive and the file system, preferably NTFS, where you want xp to be installed, setup will format the drive for you and would install xp with drive letter c:.Basically you are letting the setup know that you would be creating the selected partition as the primary dos one and so the setup would designate the drive letter c to it with ofcourse xp on it.

[varunprabhakar]

i did as u said the last time but it was installed on g:

[sam9s]

u must be missing something. Try this. This time when you are at the screen where we need to select the partition, delete it(your 10 GB one) by pressing D. This would remove the drive letter and would give you unpartitioned space. Now press c to create a new partition in that un partitioned space. Setup would ask you to select the file system for the new partition choose NTFS and complate format it. Now let it install XP. You should get back to drive letter C.

[Kniwor]

this will not guarantee that it's named C:, to make sure it's C:, first connect it to some other PC, make the partition and then make it c:, now install windows as normal but dont format the partition or whatever, leave it intact, the problem is because u have created other partitions as primary ones, as I think, this is the reason I only keep 1(or 2 if linux) primary partitions on a disk.

[sam9s]

There is no need to connect to other PC to make a primary partition, you can do all you need with a windows xp bootable CD or plain dos utility FDISK.

[n2casey]

Originally Posted by sam9s

There is no need to connect to other PC to make a primary partition, you can do all you need with a windows xp bootable CD or plain dos utility FDISK.

Absolutely right.

[varunprabhakar]

hey man i installed windows again. its d: now.
now wot shoud i do?? i dont want to go through the pain of installing windows again

[sam9s]

Did you remove the partition as I said and recreate it?

[varunprabhakar]

i removed the partition and when i recreated it , it automatically installed on d drive

[sam9s]

That is not possible, if you already had d, e, f and an unpartitioned space, setup should create c to install winxp. Strange. We r missing something. Well we can only try out the last resort, to delete all partition and recreate it. You need to copy all data in to another HDD and then proceed. I'd suggest to create 2 bigger partitions rather than 3 small ones, excluding c which can remain 10GB. Once all partitions are done and xp with all drivers and applications is installed, create an image of the c drive so that you dont need to format everytime things go wrong. You can use any image software (preferably Norton ghost) to create an image.

[Kniwor]

Originally Posted by sam9s

That is not possible, if you already had d, e, f and an unpartitioned space, setup should create c to install winxp.

NOT NECESSARILY, he is not missing anything, it's not necessary that windows will name the partition C:, and aleady posted it earlier that the solution you provided might not work. Dont make him install him again and again for no use.

@sam9s
please post only after reading my replies carefully, I never said u need to connect to another PC to create a primary partition....DID I. I said u will have to name it c:\ from windows itself, u can do it from other comp or this comp, and then install in it(as u cant change the system drive letter from windows), but the windows will already have c:, so this is a problem, the only thing u can try is, connect in another windows, create primary, and rename other partitions and give drive letters higher than this one.

Although there is a way u can do this for sure, but this will require a bit knowledge and use of partition table editing in linux, and any mistake can lead to data loss, although this will get you c:\ 100% sure. Can u edit partition tables in linux?

[shantanu]

I had this problem long long long time ago... what i did is Re-partitioned With Dm and then everything went FINEEEE

[sam9s]

Originally Posted by shantanu_webmaster

I had this problem long long long time ago... what i did is Re-partitioned With Dm and then everything went FINEEEE

You said it and I guess I wasn't speaking spanish.......

[shantanu]

yeah i supported you naaa .... i know that.. you were not speaking spanish

[..:: Free Radical ::..]

Note:
Do this after you have formatted your desired directory and set it as active partition.
Also, be sure that if you have made such partitions that make your desired C drive beyond the bootable limit (i.e, if you have moved partitions), the boot data is written on the partition where it is possible and that becomes the windows directory (Thats a mess)

Also, try using an unattended setup:

In your WinXP install dump, in the support folder, there is a .cab archive named deploy.cab. Extract it to get setupmgr.exe (Setup Manager wizard). Make an unattended answer file with the required option of the drive you want to install windows to and enter the location in the file.

If you are unable to make an unattended installation (read the help file in the same directory), google for nlite or go here..
http://unattended.msfn.org

[djmykey]

Wait b4 doing all this please tell me the following,

What is the hdd configured as, ie Primary master or slave or secondary master or slave.

Secondly what is the cdrom configured as ??

Make the hard disk as primary master and cdrom as primary slave or anything else then u might get xp drive as C:.