Spare Hard Drive

I just put a SATA Hard Drive in that I've had laying around. Windows has assigned it F:/ Drive. I'd like to set my Drives up like this, but haven't figured it out yet.

C:/ = Primary HD
D:/ = Secondary Storage Drive
F:/ = DVD-Rom
E:/ = DVD+-RW

But however, as you can see in the picture, Windows assigned the New HD (Storage Drive) as F:/ Drive. I use Windows XP Pro Sp2.
Anyone know of how to set these Drive Letters? I'm thinking Windows will not let me change the Defaulted C, D and E -- unless I Re-Install XP.

**I'm removing the Floppy. Don't even use it at all. **

 

XP disk management will enable you to do this.

From the RUN command, type diskmgmt.msc
or create a shortcut on your desktop with the command %windir%\system32\diskmgmt.msc

From there,
Right click on the drive letter and choose the drive letter, etc.
first step ...remove the old drive letters (DEF)on all drives being changed.
second step... add new drive letters as desired. A reboot may be needed in order to accomplish the addition of new letters.

System drive (c) cannot be changed.

Caution:
This will cause some of your shortcuts, etc not to work. You can correct many by editing the registry (or the individual shortcut) and search for all
d:\ & then search for D: and replace d with x (intermediate change)
e:\ & then search for E: and replace e with y (intermediate change)
f:\ & then search for F: and replace f with z (intermediate change)
Then do another group of searches and change the intermediate xyz to the correct drive letters.

Additional caution!
You will want to do a file search for *.INI and likewise change (use notepad) all the wrong drive letters to the intermediate and then to the correct drive letter. You might be able to perform the same chore
using a free program such as HandyFile Find And Replace.

 

I already tried the "Disc Management" tool before posting the thread, ...but couldn't get it to work. Drive letters "D" and "E" were not listed to choose.

I'm probably looking at problems manually changing things in the Registry. Wouldn't Windows change them around accordingly if I Re-Installed the OS?

-------------Edited---------------
I had to "Scroll" down the find the Drive Letters in "Disk Management".
Duh!! I feel like a dope. Very easy to overlook things.

 

Just change the D: drive to any letter available above F, like K, or P or whatever, or just "Remove" it like GroverH suggested. That will free the letter D: for use - if not, again like GroverH suggested, try rebooting and then the D drive letter should be available. You can then assign it to your new hard drive. Now you just set your reassigned K or P drive to the letter F if that's what you want it to be in the end. I've done this through the disk management console many times.

Fortunately, changing a DVD drive letter usually doesn't leave an extensive job of updating shortcuts or registry entries with out of date DVD drive letter references, the way changing a hard drive letter can.

If for some reason the above didn't work -- and there's no good reason why it wouldn't, I'd be unplugging the DVD drive cables inside your box to force a reassignment before I'd go to the trouble of reinstalling the OS.

 

I too would just disconnect the two DVD drives (or disable their corresponding IDE controllers in BIOS), use Windows Disk Management to re-assigne drive F: to drive D then shut down and reconnect or re-enable the two DVD drive. On next reboot Windows will discover the DVDs and should mark them as E: and F:

Regards

 

I appreciate the replies on this. I've changed them in the "Disc Manager", and had no problems, but that's not to say I won't encounter them eventually.
I Re-Installed XP on one of my Raptors, and like I thought ...Windows automatically detected the Spare, and assigned it as follows....

Hard Disk Drives
C:/ = Primary
D:/ = Spare

Removable Drives
F:/ = DVD-Rom
E:/ = DVD Burner

But afterwords, I didn't keep it this way. I put the Acronis Boot-Cd in, and "Restored" everything back. I'll just keep the Spare assigned as F:/ for now, and when I get some time, I'll Reinstall XP. I believe a Fresh Install while letting Windows natrually assign the Drive letters is the best thing to do. After reading what Grover wrote, I'm weary about Registry issues. There will probably be some issues sooner or later with the Optical Drives.
Also, I'm gonna flash my NEC 3550 with some modified FirmWare that has "bitsetting", and "booktype" before I do "Operation Wipe-Out".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note:: Just thought I'd pass this information along. ​

Acronis worked perfectly to get my system back. This makes about the 15th testing with Acronis, and it Restored perfectly each time. Did it all from the "Boot-Cd". With each of my tests, ...I always made the "Back-Up" through the "Boot-CD", and then Restored it from it as well. Yes, I know this is just the basics compared to you guys using the Secure Zone, Incrementals, and Differentials. Acronis sure packs a powerful punch just using the Boot-CD.

 

When you install a program, the installing device letter is recorded in the registry and sometimes in the INI file. Likewise, it data path or folder path is recorded. When you use a program such as Word (clip art) or a game, sometimes it needs data from the CD. It uses the previously recorded device letter as part of the path when it goes looking for the accessory data. If the original installing device letter has changed, then the data cannot be found and an error errors. Editing the registry or ini files to update the drive letter change is necessary to make the data accessible via the new drive letter.

You have some control over the drive letter assignment via the Bios by choosing where the drives are attached.As I understand, the lettering sequence used by Window is: Primary Master; Secondary Master; Primary Slave; Secondary Slave. Some Bios has settings so that you can specifically assign SATA to one of those designations. When you alter the assignment by re-assignment drive letters, Windows can sometimes become confused and the bootup will not be in your preferred arrangement. This happens most often when there is an un-used drive letter within the lettering sequence.

I can understand your reluctance to edit the registry but you might want to open registry and do the searches to see what is involved. You do not have to change anything --just do searches. However, anything you should change is immediately in effect.

 

If you change your partitioning then your letters will get changed again. Lots of people assign their DVD/CD drives letters at the end of the alphabet (X,Y,Z), or somewhere in the middle and leave the end for network drives. This leaves space for subsequent partitioning.

I do this and have abandoned the bother of keeping the letters on my systems the same; I just use meaningful disk labels which is an advantage when booting TI from the Rescue CD since it assigns letters differently.

 

Well, that's the REAL ticket (I'm sure GroverH will agree), I don't fret over the drive letters myself. On this laptop I use away from home, I have "My Documents" on the G partition physically next to the C partition and I really don't pay much attention to the drive letters any more -- I have my whole family's machines (6 of them) to take care of and can't keep track of drive letters, especially as they're all networked together and all mapped on each other's machines.

 

You're absolutely right about all this. Awhile back, I flashed my DVD-Burner to New FW, and did a Registry search to find about 25 listing that had the previous FW listed above the New FW. I deleted the Old Fw listings of course, but just think...had I not, I'm sure to have run into issues with Burning Programs. This is just a DVD-Burner,... I could imagine all the listings for ALL my programs that have recognized the drives as they are now (Picture at Top). Changing them now would probably lead to trouble somewhere down the road. To avoid all that, I'll use the overall Best problem solving technique there is -- "Operation Wipe-Out"!

 

One more question about Internal Spare Hard Drives.

Since there is NO Operating System on it, and used primarly for "Storage"....is there a way to get it to "Spin Down" when not in use?

My first thought is that since it doesn't have an OS, then it should automatically "Spin Down". My Externals cuts off after 10 minutes of inactivity, so why wouldn't an Internal Drive do the same?
But then again, it's more than likely because of being powered by the Power Supply unit from the Computer.

The drive I put is as a Spare is a Western Digital (WD1600JS). I checked WD's web sight, and couldn't find anything that would do this.

 

[bump] ......Sorry.
Anyone know how to make a Spare HD (Storage) "Spin Down", or shut off after no activity?

 

Control Panel Power Options but it appears that it controls all the disks not just a second disk. However, it could be that if they are both turned off and you access disk 1 it will turn on and leave disk 2 off until it is accessed. Maybe??

 

yeah, I took a look at that. It'll probably turn both off at the same time. Must be an easier way.
External HD's will "Spin Down", or Cut off after about 10 minutes of No activity. So, why couldn't you get an Internal to do the same thing?

I think "Xpilot" has his set up this way. Wonder if he's around.

 

My main hard drives are in swappable drawers so only one is in the computer at a time. The slave drive is in constant use because, as well as being used for backup storage, my page files are also on there.
It had occured to me that it might be worthwhile to put the page files back on the main drive and mount the slave drive in its own removable drive rack. I have not yet done this as the corner of the mother board gets in the way.
My next tower will definitely have two removable drive bays from day one !

Xpilot.

 

Many years ago I used a programme called "Hard Drive Sleep" this allowed the user to turn on, or off, individual hard drive as needed. From memory it caused more problems then having the drives all working

John