Win XP/SATA Drive/C:Drive

[BOAC]

FOR -as you can see I have 'restored' the letter 'C' to the correct drive. As you say, the machine WILL operate correctly without but there are still some less-than-perfect install routine that 'automatically' install to the 'C ' drive and you may find difficulties with these. I can remember installing some assembler-type stuff a while back that just stuffed things onto the 'C' drive (without any choice) and in those days the 'C' drive was the 'C' drive. In your case, I guess best left alone, but the facility to change is there if you need it. The only drive letter you cannot 're-assign' in XP normally is the system/boot drive.

[Mac the Knife]

You need to understand the syntax of ARC paths

BOOT.INI and ARC Path Naming Conventions and Usage

and Windows XP ARC Naming Conventions - TRCB

Mac

[FullOppositeRudder]

BOAC, thank you for that. This machine doesn't get a lot of 'new' requests these days - 'tis largely used in a routine and somewhat unadventurous role. I'll watch out for the points you have raised however, few things are more unpleasant than the prospect of re-installing the OS and programs. I have always stored data and My Docs on the second physical drive so - in theory anyway - they should be safe.

Thanks again, this 'forum' is exceptional in the breadth of experience available and the accuracy of advice offered.

FOR

[BOAC]

Not sure if that was for me or FOR, but

You need to understand the syntax of ARC paths

- convince me

No RISC, No SCSI and no problems directing the system to the OS? First para on x-86 already fully 'understood'.

[Mac the Knife]

"Theoretically, this syntax could be used to start Windows NT on any drive in the system. However, this would require that all drives are correctly identified through the standard INT 13 interface; since support for this varies from disk controller to disk controller and most system BIOS only identify a single disk controller through INT 13, in practice it is only safe to use this syntax to start Windows NT from the first two drives connected to the primary disk controller, or the first four drives in the case of a dual-channel EIDE controller."

To avoid tears put Windows boot drive on the first SATA socket (SATA 0)



Mac

[Booglebox]

Agree with Mac. Tis usually a different colour to the others.