For some reason, my friend's computer lists his hard drive as F:. Is there a way to change the hard drive to C:. Will doing something like that create problems, especially since it's where the OS is installed?
Where does it show up when it boots? Can you go to the boot-up order? There's a way to change it before the OS recognizes it. Somewhere in the OS, something was designated as "C:" before "F:" existed, and it kept it like that. Are you sure there isn't a "C:" drive already? Wow. I never heard of that. I heard of D: and B: maybe, but not "F". That's far down the letter-schemes...
I've run into this and haven't been able to figure out a fix other than reinstalling the OS from scratch and making sure that you install to C:\. The problem is that most of the programs look for files starting with the drive letter first. Change the letter, and even if Windows starts, the programs will be hosed and it will be a complete nightmare to even attempt to fix.
I'm thinking it may have something to do with the disk partition. I know you can create them and name them in there. I'm sure there's probably another way around it besides reformating and remaking the partition though.
I'll probably just reinstall the operating system for him. This occurred when his nephew reinstalled the operating system just yesterday, so it's not like he'll be losing anything.
Right-click "My Computer" and go to "Manage". On the left-hand side of the Computer Management window, click "Disk Management" under "Storage". The lower left-hand pane should show "Disk 0" first. Does that say "( F: )"? If so, that means your primary partition is indeed drive F. This is the screen where you can change the drive letter by right-clicking and going to "Change Drive Letter And Paths...", although that might cause booting problems. But your BIOS should be set to boot off of HDD-0 (regardless of Windows drive letter) before any other hard drives. Either way, if you have problems, get a copy of Partition Magic and boot off of that CD. It'll let you pick which drives to set as primary and secondary, etc. Good luck, though.
Oops, I didn't see your second post. If you're not worried about having to reinstall, then you should definitely go ahead and try to change the drive letter through computer management first. And then if you have to reinstall, just reformat the drive and make sure you're using the "HDD-0" for the Windows install drive.
