Hard Drive Problem

[PBDevil21]

ok...i am trying to add a new harddrive to my pc...my current harddrive has 2 partitions...C drive which is for windows...and D drive which holds the rest of the space...when i try to put the new harddrive in...instead of assigning it E drive...it puts it as D drive and converts my original drive to E...why is it doing this and is there any way i can keep my current partitions and make the new drive E instead of it changing my other drive?

[John Prophet]

Welcome to the forum!

Thats normal for it to do that unfortunately. It gives letters to all the primary partitions first and then goes back and gets the extended partitions.

But maybe there is a way around it.

What operating system do you have?? If its xp or w2000 maybe someone has a simple workaround.

JP

[PBDevil21]

i was hoping there was some way around it without redoing all my partitions...im lazy..lol...its win 98

[pickel]

Can't you just rename the drives in device mngr???

[shahani]

In XP, open Control Panel, go to Admin Tools --Computer Management--Disk Management under storage and do it there.

[John Prophet]

its w98 though

[no1_vern]

HI PBDevil21, Welcome to Techimo!

The primary partitions are incremented in the computer designation scheme. That means if you install a disk with a primary Partition then the drive letters change. The only way to ensure the drive designation doesnt change is to make the entire drive an extended partition. This works only when there is another drive in the system.

Quote:
Creating a Primary partition can change your drive-letter designation configuration on pre-existing hard drives, which can generate problems. If your system thinks a certain file is located on a certain drive letter (say for example: D, and your D drive changes to E), and that drive letter changes, your system won't be able to locate that file. (from guide 2 below)

Read these guides theroughly- Fdisk can and will mess up your drive if you arent CAREFULL!!
Here is a good partitioning guide
Part 2

Pickel _ it doenst work like that. The hard drive is divided into partitions. The "name" your are talking about is for us. The computer sees/uses the "drive letter" - be it the "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", Drive etc.

[Bill in SD, CA]

no1_vern is correct.

When I first noticed this years ago it bugged me also. I got used to it in a day or so.

However, it's not really that big of a deal. Any shortcuts to programs or folders on your original "D" drive will need to have their paths editted to now reflect "E." Same with your CD ROM unless you had a "high" drive letter assigned to it.

As no1_vern said if you Fdisk the second drive with no primary partition on it then your back to the original drive letter assignements.

At this stage of the game I assume you don't have anything on the new drive yet otherwise, copy the data to the old drive first.

Bill