Windows XP operating system. Hard drive is mapped as I. Want to change to C

[shashgo]

For some reason, the hard drive on my system is marked as I and not C, and this does not work well with my automatic backup system.
How do I change my drive letter to C?  I went to management where it lists the drives and I tried to change it from there but it wouldnt let me, says Boot volume cannot be reassigned.  So what should I do?

[Allan]

You cannot change the drive letter designation of the system partition with reformatting and reinstalling the OS. I'm guessing when you installed the OS initially you had other usb devices / drives attached. You can't do that.

[shashgo]

But how do you disconnect the other peripherals that are built into the computer like a card reader or a lot for an external drive and stuff. 

If I do need to reinstall the OS, let me know what I should do so the hard drive willl be mapped as C:

[ThomasTheXPUser]

see if this helps, really didn't read over it much

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844

microsoft kb

[Allan]

But how do you disconnect the other peripherals that are built into the computer like a card reader or a lot for an external drive and stuff. 

If I do need to reinstall the OS, let me know what I should do so the hard drive willl be mapped as C:

You don't need to disconnect the internal drives such as card readers. Boot to the Windows disk and early on you'll be given the option to delete and recreate partitions and format - choose that option and do the obvious. Make sure when you reinstall you install to c: drive.