Reinstall - Change Default Drive Letter

Hey!!

I had to reinstall Win XP for a buddy's computer. It's a Dell and has several USB ports and card readers in the front. When XP is installing, it's referring to the "C" drive but after the install is complete the main drive is now "H ". After reading many of the other posts, I discovered I can't change the boot drive.

When I go to start loading programs, the default drive is still "C" but the hard drive is actually "H ". Is there a way I can change the default drive when installing programs so that "H" appears instead of "C "??

I can't select anything concerning drive letters while windows is installing.

 

Was this a repair install (made over the top of the existing)? Was the previous OS drive dubbed H: also? To what device is the C: presently assigned?

 

Thanks Steve. I gave that a shot but the way Dell have the front panel configured, the power switch is combined into that cable with the readers and ports cause I did unplug it but couldn't turn it on.

Is there a way to change the default drive when installing future items??

 

New SATA drive so it was a fresh install. The old drive failed so I don't know if it was "C" before.

 

Are there other HD's installed? What device is now assigned the C: label?

 

No other HDs installed. "C" is now a removable drive.

 

Disconnect the removable drive if it is indeed a removable drive and reboot for effect. If it isn't a drive but instead an unused port, open Disk Management and reassign it some label other than C:. Reboot to allow the OS to initialize the new settings and then check your boot drive to see if it changed label assignments.

 

Good idea!!! Will give it a whirl and let you know.

 

I don't know why, but I reinstalled the OS and the hdd changed to "C ". Strange!! Thank ya'll for helping me!