[Reniik]

I just got my new rig set up (AMD x2 4400+, DFI nF4 SLI Expert, duel e-GeForce 7800gtx KOs) and it is configured with 3 hard drives- two IDE, one SATA. Due to the speed on the SATA I would like that to be my main drive, the trouble is, the C: designation was given to the first logical IDE drive and not the SATA drive. When I installed windows to drive E: I got the error "NTLDR not found" everytime I booted- unless I inserted the xp setup cd in the drive. That being said, I'd like to change the drive designation of my SATA drive to C: and remap my other two hard drives as well.

I tried a registry tweak on MSDN to change the drive letters, but it did not work for some reason- I think because I am on 64-bit perhaps. I have since formatted the windows installation drive and I would like to change its designation before I install windows again. Does anyone know a boot utility or recovery console command that will allow me to do that?

[hans5849]

When you install windows you need to have the SATA drivers in with windows, either by slipstreaming/unattended install ( http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/ use nlite) or by sticking the drivers disc in, and you have to tell windows to install onto the SATA drive. I have found it is best to unplug the other drives if you not sure which drive in the install is you SATA drive.

So you see its not as simple as changing you drive letters, you have to reinstall windows.

[Jamsan]

Ya, I don't think there's an easy way to do this without reinstalling ... unplug all the drives, so that the SATA drive is the only one in there, and it'll be defaulted as being the C drive.

hans, not all motherboards need to have SATA drivers installed (thankfully, mine is one of them), as SATA hard drives are treated as an IDE drive in terms of driver compatibility.. And also, it sounds like he already had installed the OS on the sata drive (just as the E drive), so it doesnt sound like drivers is his problem.

[Reniik]

I was actually thinking the same thing- removing the IDE chain and hoping that the installation will default the SATA drive to the C: designation. I am about to try that now.

Additionally, the driver advice for the SATA drive was actually exactly what I needed- last night. I have since figure that out so even though I didn't mention it, you did address one of the issues I was having.

Thanks guys!

[hans5849]

do you know how to change your drive letters for CD roms and the non-windows drives?

I think theres a mode in my bios that make it treat SATA as IDE, but i can't use it because i've got to many drives.

[Da Lucky 1]

1 Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
2 Under Computer Management, click Disk Management. In the right pane, you’ll see your drives listed. CD-ROM drives are listed at the bottom of the pane.
3 Right-click the drive or device you want to change, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
4 Click Change, click Assign the following drive letter, click the drive letter you want to assign, and then click OK.

you can try that, but i doubt that will make it your default windows drive though :-/