Hard Drive replacing each other

[leomon235]

Today, I reinstalled windows xp, because apparently, our computer got a few viruses that we were unable to get rid of. 

I copied everything important onto D Drive (because viruses are on c drive) and nuked C Drive. Installation worked perfectly, I was able to reinstall everything back onto the computer. However, when I opened D drive to reclaim all my documents, instead of finding the 'D' stuff, I instead find the stuff previously inside C-Drive. Everything, from the program files, the pictures, documents. I haven't found any of my old D-Drive documents, so apparently, C-Drive replaced D-Drive or something. At the moment, D-Drive has EVERY SINGLE FILE that used to be in C-Drive (including important ones like 'WINDOWS' and 'system 32')

Now, obviously, I tried to open a few of the programs in D-Drive. The funny thing is, a few of the programs (like firefox) works, but other programs doesn't (like Microsoft Word, which gave me an error that says "The operating system is not presently configured to run this application.")

I checked the 'Add or Remove program' window to see if the programs were installed into the computer, but nothing was listed there but my drivers. The programs that worked, such as firefox, didn't show up on the program list, even thou I can run it just fine. I then tried to create a desktop shortcut that linked directly to the program in D-Drive, but when I click on the shortcut, it doesn't connect to the program.

I haven't tried to drag over any files in D-Drive just yet (other than the 'My Pictures' folder) in fear of the old viruses reappearing. I guess the main question is : Can I delete the old programs in D-Drive? If I do, will it affect the things that are in C-Drive? Any alternate solutions to my 'double drive?'

P.S: Before you ask, I nuked the CORRECT drive while reinstalling windows. I triple checked that I was deleting C-Drive, and not D-Drive, so don't tell me that I deleted the wrong hard drive.

[Dusty]

I copied everything important onto D Drive

How did you copy files?   How did you 'nuke' C:?

[Deerpark]

P.S: Before you ask, I nuked the CORRECT drive while reinstalling windows. I triple checked that I was deleting C-Drive, and not D-Drive, so don't tell me that I deleted the wrong hard drive.

You might say that but to me it still sounds like you deleted the wrong drive... There is no way the entire content of your old C drive could copy to D by it self.

[dahlarbear]

1.  Hard Drives.  How many physical hard drives are on your system?

2.  Logical Drives.  Are "C:" and "D:" on the same physical drive?

3.  Define "copy".  How did you copy everything important?  What software did you use?  The Microsoft "copy" command, drag and drop?

4.  Define "nuke".  How did you "nuke" the "C:" drive?  What software program did you use?

5.  Windows XP Installation.  What did you use to re-install Windows XP?
    a.  Microsoft Windows XP Setup CD (Retail CD)
    b.  OEM Windows XP Setup CD
    c.  OEM Recovery CD (aka Restore CD)
    d.  OEM Recovery Partition (aka Restore Partition)

6.  It sounds like you did a "clean" install of Windows XP from either Microsoft Windows XP Setup CD or OEM Windows XP Setup CD.  If that's the case you need to re-install all of your applications to ensure the new operating system recognizes them (adds application installation data into the Windows registry).  Generally you would install the applications from their source CDs or download files.  If you have access to the source files (and any product key numbers you might need; e.g. Microsoft Office), then you won't need the programs on the D: drive.