# renaming hard drive from H to C - Windows XP



## sidepasser (May 10, 2002)

Ok - had to install a new hard drive and format to Windows XP. Somehow the local drive got named H instead of C. I've tried disk management, but no help there..Windows Xp will not allow a drive name change.

HELP..I have class and cannot access my software because when it boots up, it looks for C drive and not H drive. C drive is a ghost drive and contains nada...

any ideas for a work around?


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

You need to address that hard drive as the primary master IDE device. You do that with the ribbon cables. Exactly what you do to address your drive depends on whether you are using standard IDE cables or cable select cables. Look at your IDE cables and report back here what color(s) the connectors are (all of them).

Just curious, but how are you booting your machine if your Windows drive is drive H?


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## sidepasser (May 10, 2002)

I have the only drive in my computer as H: local drive/boot drive. There are no other drives, such as a cd drive (removed cd player). The old hard drive was named C and when it had a bad boot sector, I had to buy a new harddrive and format it. To get the files off the old hard drive, the old hard drive was slaved to another computer's hard drive and Seagate was used to remove the files from that hard drive. Then the new hard drive was slaved to another computer and loaded with Windows Xp through the Seagate since I don't have a cd drive in this computer any longer. The new hard drive is connected as the master drive in my computer now and just booted up fine with the hard drive named H. I don't know why the drive got named H..but getting it un named is driving us nutz. XP won't allow the rename, so what the geeksters here decided to do is to dump xp from the new hard drive, and reload using an esata cd drive.

I read on the net about the IDE cables, and after checking, it appears that the cables are connected correctly. However, the slave pin was left in the new hard drive..sigh..and the geeksters think that may have caused the problem as when the new hard drive was formatted with xp, it believed it was still in the master/slave configuration. 

This has been a nightmare that we have worked on for three days...and I've missed two days of class for this cool job that I got over the net. I had to buy a new puter (blazin fast tons of ram and memory) because my school/work computer needs to be just for that, no other software on it as the company's software is quirky. So I do have a windows Vista computer, but ...I really need one with xp on it that has just xp and sound/graphics. Tried to locate one over the weekend, but no one sells them anymore..unless I buy used. Am sort of afraid of that route as there may be tech issues with a used one that I can't fix. The company's software will not work with Vista..they are making upgrades, but for the time being..my new computer won't work.

so, I have until 5 today to get my old computer working or lose my job..that I just got and it took my 4 months to get on with this company.

sigh..thank God for redundancy in the job department, at least I still have the day job.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

sidepasser said:


> The new hard drive is connected as the master drive in my computer now and just booted up fine with the hard drive named H.


How are you determining that the hard drive is connected as master? Is that how the CMOS is reporting it, or are you saying that because of the way you've configured your cables?



sidepasser said:


> I read on the net about the IDE cables, and after checking, it appears that the cables are connected correctly. However, the slave pin was left in the new hard drive..sigh..and the geeksters think that may have caused the problem as when the new hard drive was formatted with xp, it believed it was still in the master/slave configuration.


You didn't report back to me about the color(s) of your connectors. I think we have some confusion about the type of cable you're using and how the jumpers should be set. Clearly, the IDE bus is confused about something.

The most common IDE cables today are "cable select" cables. Those cables have different colored connectors (black, gray, and blue). If that's the case then you shouldn't set the jumper for either master or slave, you should set all hard drives on the cable as "cable select" (CS). You address drives on a "cable select" cable by using the proper connectors, as follows:

black - master
gray - slave
blue - mainboard

If all of the connectors on the cable are the same color (usually all black) then you have a "jumper select" cable, so you should use the master/slave jumper settings.


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## sidepasser (May 10, 2002)

Quick update, the geekster kids fixed the problem. They removed the slave pin, reformatted the hard drive from an esata cd drive, and reinstalled windows xp..

worked like a charm..now I have a c drive again, my software works, and the seagate is now on the H drive.

whew..3 days..one hard drive, two reformats, and 300.00 and all is well. You should see how they jury rigged my new hard drive though..it was too big to fit into the slot in where the old hard drive was, so a bit of ingenuity, some duct tape and now I have a running computer. That is why I no longer have a cd player in that computer..no room. But I have a honkin big harddrive and seems that everything works. Am concerned about that duct tape, but we shall see how long it lasts..hopefully until this company makes the switch to Vista..

Thanks Nevada, they read your directions but I can't honestly say if the cables were reconfigured..I do horses, not puters..so all of this was way over my head and made me a nervous wreck. lol..


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## Cornhusker (Mar 20, 2003)

I wonder if the disk management utility that comes with XP would have solved it?
I know you can change the drive letter in there, but I've never tried it on the boot drive.


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