Guest Sid Elbow Posted July 25, 2008 Posted July 25, 2008 If you do a new Win2K install and first delete any existing partitions, you need to reboot after that to avoid unexpected drive letters. Does anyone know if the same is true for XP?
Guest Dave Patrick Posted July 26, 2008 Posted July 26, 2008 Re: Reboot after deleting partitions. I believe it is a good time saving practice. -- Regards, Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup. Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft MVP [Windows] http://www.microsoft.com/protect "Sid Elbow" wrote: > If you do a new Win2K install and first delete any existing partitions, > you need to reboot after that to avoid unexpected drive letters. > > Does anyone know if the same is true for XP?
Guest Andy Posted July 26, 2008 Posted July 26, 2008 Re: Reboot after deleting partitions. On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:37:47 -0400, Sid Elbow <here@there.com> wrote: >If you do a new Win2K install and first delete any existing partitions, >you need to reboot after that to avoid unexpected drive letters. > >Does anyone know if the same is true for XP? What unexpected drive letters? If you look at the Windows setup screen that shows the drives and their partitions, the drive letters that are shown next to the partitions are the same drive letters those partitions will have in the installed Windows.
Guest Sid Elbow Posted July 26, 2008 Posted July 26, 2008 Re: Reboot after deleting partitions. Andy wrote: > What unexpected drive letters? If you look at the Windows setup screen > that shows the drives and their partitions, the drive letters that are > shown next to the partitions are the same drive letters those > partitions will have in the installed Windows. Perhaps "unexpected" is the wrong word - "inconvenient" might be more to the point. Lets say you currently have a C-partition (containing a bootable OS). You decide to dump the OS on C: and install Win2K in its place. So you boot to the Win2K CD and use the option to delete the partition on C: If you then immediately create a new partition and continue the install, the new install partition won't be created as C: (because C: was existing and enumerated when you booted and the Win2K install doesn't re-use the drive letter - it simply picks the next available letter). This isn't an actual problem but it's a bit "inconvenient" to have an OS who's boot partition and all path references are to, say, E: (not to mention that some application installs still seem to assume C: as the location for, say, <Program Files> instead of actually checking). The solution usually recommended is to reboot the install immediately after deleting the original C-partition so that the drive is re-enumerated. However, I thought I had heard that the XP installation takes care of this by re-allocating the drive letter after partition deletion .... but I'm not sure.
Guest Sid Elbow Posted July 26, 2008 Posted July 26, 2008 Re: Reboot after deleting partitions. It wasn't really time saving that I was concerned with so much as having the new OS installation show up as a C-partition as opposed to some other drive letter. Dave Patrick wrote: > I believe it is a good time saving practice.
Guest Dave Patrick Posted July 26, 2008 Posted July 26, 2008 Re: Reboot after deleting partitions. Correct, and that's was the gist of the statement. It saves time by not having to start over because the drive letter is incorrect. -- Regards, Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup. Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft MVP [Windows] http://www.microsoft.com/protect "Sid Elbow" wrote: > It wasn't really time saving that I was concerned with so much as having > the new OS installation show up as a C-partition as opposed to some other > drive letter.
Guest Andy Posted July 27, 2008 Posted July 27, 2008 Re: Reboot after deleting partitions. On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:56:07 -0400, Sid Elbow <here@there.com> wrote: >Andy wrote: > >> What unexpected drive letters? If you look at the Windows setup screen >> that shows the drives and their partitions, the drive letters that are >> shown next to the partitions are the same drive letters those >> partitions will have in the installed Windows. > >Perhaps "unexpected" is the wrong word - "inconvenient" might be more to >the point. > >Lets say you currently have a C-partition (containing a bootable OS). >You decide to dump the OS on C: and install Win2K in its place. > >So you boot to the Win2K CD and use the option to delete the partition >on C: If you then immediately create a new partition and continue the >install, the new install partition won't be created as C: (because C: >was existing and enumerated when you booted and the Win2K install >doesn't re-use the drive letter - it simply picks the next available >letter). I've never seen that happen. When you delete the C: partition, the drive letter is freed. If you immediately recreate it, the partition becomes C: again. > >This isn't an actual problem but it's a bit "inconvenient" to have an OS >who's boot partition and all path references are to, say, E: (not to >mention that some application installs still seem to assume C: as the >location for, say, <Program Files> instead of actually checking). > >The solution usually recommended is to reboot the install immediately >after deleting the original C-partition so that the drive is >re-enumerated. However, I thought I had heard that the XP installation >takes care of this by re-allocating the drive letter after partition >deletion .... but I'm not sure. Doing that is a recipe for making the primary partition not C: if there are other existing partitions. When you restart Windows setup, it will assign drive letters beginning with C: to the already existing partitions, so when you recreate the primary partition it will not be C:. Unless you want to change the partition size, there is no reason to delete the partition. Just select the partition to install Windows, and you will be offered the option to format the partition before file copying begins.
Guest John John (MVP) Posted July 27, 2008 Posted July 27, 2008 Re: Reboot after deleting partitions. Andy wrote: > On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:56:07 -0400, Sid Elbow <here@there.com> wrote: > > >>Andy wrote: >> >> >>>What unexpected drive letters? If you look at the Windows setup screen >>>that shows the drives and their partitions, the drive letters that are >>>shown next to the partitions are the same drive letters those >>>partitions will have in the installed Windows. >> >>Perhaps "unexpected" is the wrong word - "inconvenient" might be more to >>the point. >> >>Lets say you currently have a C-partition (containing a bootable OS). >>You decide to dump the OS on C: and install Win2K in its place. >> >>So you boot to the Win2K CD and use the option to delete the partition >>on C: If you then immediately create a new partition and continue the >>install, the new install partition won't be created as C: (because C: >>was existing and enumerated when you booted and the Win2K install >>doesn't re-use the drive letter - it simply picks the next available >>letter). > > > I've never seen that happen. When you delete the C: partition, the > drive letter is freed. If you immediately recreate it, the partition > becomes C: again. It is something that happens frequently enough, users have often reported and asked about this drive lettering behaviour in these groups. The time it takes to reboot is less than the time spent reinstalling. Setup Changes Drive Letters After a Partition Is Deleted and Reinstalled http://support.microsoft.com/kb/225025 John
Guest Sid Elbow Posted July 28, 2008 Posted July 28, 2008 Re: Reboot after deleting partitions. John John (MVP) wrote: > It is something that happens frequently enough, users have often > reported and asked about this drive lettering behaviour in these groups. > The time it takes to reboot is less than the time spent reinstalling. > > Setup Changes Drive Letters After a Partition Is Deleted and Reinstalled > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/225025 FWIW, I tried it both ways for an XP install. - I booted the XP install CD, deleted the original (first) C-partition, created a new partition and immediately installed XP. The OS showed up as E: - I then rebooted the XP install CD, deleted the first partition, created a new partition then canceled the setup and rebooted. I then installed to that partition and the OS showed up as C: So, same behaviour as Win2K apparently.
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