Changing Drives

[Sharon Jacobsen]

I bought a laptop from PCWorld a while back and the hd is split into two as drives C and D. Therefore the CD drive is drive E.

The software that came installed with the computer for burning CDs will only accept the CD drive as being drive D. I've tried installing another software package and that's doing the same. It seems the free versions won't let you change this.

It seems daft to me that PCWorld install software that can't be used because of the way they've set up the machine but done is done. What I need to know is how I can change this so that I only have one HD drive (why would I need 2?) and the CD drive becomes D. This is the way my PCs have always been before.

Thanks

~ Sharon J

[Raptor]

If you wish to remove partitions you will require to delete them using either Fdisk or the Windows XP CD. Either ways will require you to format your Hard Disk Drive after doing so.

[Sharon J]

So much for clever PCWorld then, eh? Software that can't be used unless I format my HD? What a joke!

Thanks anyway but without a backup system, I can't possibly format my HD and I can't even backup to CD because of the problem with the drives. Blast!!

~Sharon

[merlin_2]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309000&sd=tech

[Computer_Commando]

So much for clever PCWorld then, eh? Software that can't be used unless I format my HD? What a joke!...

The joke is the burning software.  It should make no difference what drive letter the CD is.   My CD's are G & H.

Partitions are very handy.  Keep all your files and data on D; if you ever have to reinstall OS, it only affects C, not D.

[merlin_2]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q223188/

[MalikTous]

What's even worse is that the second HD partition is probably your Factory Install Restore info. The CDROM they gave you as a 'recovery disk' is just a bootup sequence that accesses the OS, drivers, and applications on the second HD partition.

If you're on Windows NT4, Windows XP, or Windows 2k, you should be able to go into Disk Administration and re-assign the drive letter labels so the CDRW becomes D: and the second HD partition becomes E:. Then you want to use whatever utility they gave (if they bothered to give you one) to copy the Restore partition to CD, before it gets bit by a virus...