My computer has no drive C...

JMEaT · Post by **JMEaT** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 9:56 pm

It has a drive H... I have a SATA drive on teh SATA 1 plug on the board. System specs are in this thread:

phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=7523

I'm guessing another reinstall of Windows... >_>

Red Barchetta · Post by **Red Barchetta** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 10:10 pm

Did you have some other drives attached when you installed the OS? I had the same problem, booted from the CD and installed WinXP to a new drive that I had attached to an existing system. When it was all done, my system drive was I: and the OS would not let me change it, as it is the "system" drive.

JMEaT · Post by **JMEaT** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 10:11 pm

Naw, it was just the DVD-RW drive and the SATA disk. I guess having a drive H isn't so bad, as long as it won't screw things up down the road...

Kinda annoying when most programs default to C:\ etc during install.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 10:13 pm

Did you forget to hit F8 (or is it F6) during the initial XP-CD Boot: "Press F6 if you need to load Third Party SCSI drivers"?

XP will "say" it is installed, but when you reboot, it won't see the HDD, because it is not on the standard IDE channel.

I think you'll find you have an application on the CD which will create a floppy with the SATA driver on it.

Hit F6 when you load the XP-CD.... and nothing happens!

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE...

XP continues loading, and after a few minutes it will ask you to put in the floppy. (A CD won't work! XP can only load these drivers from a floppy. How stupid is that??)

After that it's all plain sailing.

JMEaT · Post by **JMEaT** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 10:23 pm

Thx for the replies btw.

Mobi: Yeah I hit F6 and installed the nvidia system driver from the Floppy that came with the board. Windows XP then saw the SATA disk and partitioned it and formatted. Everything went smoothly until I saw drive H after setup was done.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 10:26 pm

Delete the partitions on the hard drive and leave it empty, then try changing the boot priority/etc in BIOS to the SATA first. Then the system will boot off the CDROM even if it's not first priority because the hard drive is empty.

I don't think you need to load the RAID drivers since you are using the onchip SATA.

JMEaT · Post by **JMEaT** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 11:02 pm

Yeah I did all that in the beginning. BIOS still reported the Primary master as None, Secondary Master as Plextor DVD-RW, Third Master as Maxtor SATA 250GB Fourth Master as None. I even disabled the onboard RAID before I even begain WinXP setup.

Will leaving it as drive H mess anything up ?

JMEaT · Post by **JMEaT** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 11:08 pm

I figured it out I think. I had my USB 8 in one Card reader in the USB port when I installed. I p;lugged it in and the 1st card drive is C...

Guess I'll reinstall for the hell of it.

JMEaT · Post by **JMEaT** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 11:51 pm

Problem Solved! I have a C drive

It was the memory card reader. Also on a side note, if the card reader is plugged into the USB port Windows will take an extra 4 minutes to boot. It won't even load the XP screen. Leaving the card reader unplugged makes windows boot in 3 seconds.

Instig8 · Post by **Instig8** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 12:47 am

So much concern over your primary drive being called 'c'? I like 'hda1' better.

Warlock · Post by **Warlock** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 3:28 pm

yeah i allways unhook all drives expt the drive im installing XP to