Order of partitions in XP setup menu

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PRR

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The last time I reinstalled XP, Windows gave me the choice of

partitions to install into. Because I had previously divided my two

partitions (one for Windows and programs, the other for documents)

equally, I wasn't entirely sure which to install to, and cancelled out

of the installation. No big problem, since I double-checked, then

started the reintall again.



Next time this happens, I'm wondering--is there an order in which the

two partitions will appear? Does the one on the top refer to the

partition with the earliest letter (as in, partition C will always

appear right before partition D)? Or is it based on size? Or is it

based on...
 
PRR wrote:

> The last time I reinstalled XP, Windows gave me the choice of

> partitions to install into. Because I had previously divided my two

> partitions (one for Windows and programs, the other for documents)

> equally, I wasn't entirely sure which to install to, and cancelled out

> of the installation. No big problem, since I double-checked, then

> started the reintall again.

>

> Next time this happens, I'm wondering--is there an order in which the

> two partitions will appear? Does the one on the top refer to the

> partition with the earliest letter (as in, partition C will always

> appear right before partition D)? Or is it based on size? Or is it

> based on...



If you only have one hard disk the "active" partition will be enumerated

as drive C.



http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825668

Overview of PNP enumeration and hard disk drive letter assignments in

Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP



John
 
be absolutely sure that

you don't install windows

to your d drive where your

doc's are or they will be

overwritten.



also keep in mind that

there are three options

that the cd provides for

setting up windows.



first option is to install

windows in addition to

the one that is already

installed on the hd.



the above will produce

a parallel installation of

the o.s.



second option is to

install windows to the

same folder where

windows is.



the above will overwrite

the installation already

on the hd.



the third option is to

:"repair" the current

installation on the hd.





--



db·´¯`·...¸>

DatabaseBen, Retired Professional

- Systems Analyst

- Database Developer

- Accountancy

- Veteran of the Armed Forces

- Microsoft Partner

- @hotmail.com

~~~~~~~~~~"share the nirvana" - dbZen



>

>



"PRR" wrote in message news:98ab01eb-1a49-4357-869a-819b51d530ab@k36g2000prb.googlegroups.com...

> The last time I reinstalled XP, Windows gave me the choice of

> partitions to install into. Because I had previously divided my two

> partitions (one for Windows and programs, the other for documents)

> equally, I wasn't entirely sure which to install to, and cancelled out

> of the installation. No big problem, since I double-checked, then

> started the reintall again.

>

> Next time this happens, I'm wondering--is there an order in which the

> two partitions will appear? Does the one on the top refer to the

> partition with the earliest letter (as in, partition C will always

> appear right before partition D)? Or is it based on size? Or is it

> based on...
 
It seems like you are describing how Windows assigns letters to label

the partitions. I am talking, however, about how they appear when you

are about to re-install Windows. I'm not sure if the labels "C" and

"D" will appear in the screen, when you are choosing which partition

to install to...





On Mar 10, 4:29 am, John John - MVP wrote:

>

> If you only have one hard disk the "active" partition will be enumerated

> as drive C.

>

> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825668

> Overview of PNP enumeration and hard disk drive letter assignments in

> Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP

>

> John
 
On Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:28:54 -0800 (PST), PRR

wrote:



> It seems like you are describing how Windows assigns letters to label

> the partitions. I am talking, however, about how they appear when you

> are about to re-install Windows. I'm not sure if the labels "C" and

> "D" will appear in the screen, when you are choosing which partition

> to install to...

>

>



First, if Windows is *already installed* the window AFTER you select

to install (should be the 2nd) will show you "\Windows" telling you it

sees the Windows folder. At the bottom Status Bar of this window

there will be a "Repair" option.



Using this option will perform a "Repair Reinstall" of Windows, which

leaves your configuration and apps as is. It installs the original

Windows OS files, therefore you will have to run Win Update to

reinstall all applicable updates.



As to order; it's the order of the partitions on the drive or drives.



Active boot drive/partition first (aka C:) then other partitions or

drives in order.



Examples:



1) HD0 (2 partitions) display as 1st partition (C:), 2nd partition



2) HD0 (single partition, set active = C:) & HD1 (2 partitions)

display as HD0, HD1-part1, HD1-part2



Partitioned IDE hard drives:

1st partition = Primary

2nd partition = Extended





FYI on SATA hard drives on a RAID controller:



A "RAID Partition" can be 2 or more physical hard drives made to look

like any combination of hard drives. I mention this because newer

systems with SATA hard drives come with RAID Controllers even if you

use only one physical hard drive.



Our DELL Server at work has 3 physical SATA 80gb hard drives, but the

RAID partitioning was set to have 2 Logical Drives, C: & D:



In essence 2 of the 80gb drives = D:





--

======== Tecknomage ========

Computer Systems Specialist

IT Technician

San Diego, CA
 
The drive letters are really quite irrelevant they are merely symbolic

links to NT objects and these symbolic links are only specific to the

operating system. You can have more than one NT (XP) version installed

on the computer and the letters could be completely different from one

installation to the other. You could be booting with the CD to the the

Setup program or to the Recovery Console and the letters could be quite

different than what they are in the up and running Windows installation.



Partitions don't have drive letters, they are numbered, the symbolic

link will link a letter to the partition number. An MBR disk can have a

maximum of 4 partitions and these partitions are numbered 1 to 4. At

the setup screen the partitions will be shown in their order on the

disk, if you have 3 partitions they will appear as such:



x: Partition 1

x: Partition 2

x: Partition 3



If there are no active partitions on the disk the setup program will

assign letter C to the first partition and letter D to the CD drive and

then letter the other partitions with the next available letters. In

the above example assuming that there is only one hard disk and one CD

drive in the computer the setup screen would usually show something like

this:



C: Partition 1

E: Partition 2

F: Partition 3



If you were to flag the second partition as active the setup program

would show something like this:



E: Partition 1

C: Partition 2

F: Partition 3



Along with this the setup program shows the size of the partitions so

knowing how big your partitions are is always useful when trying to

identify the partitions. If you have more than one hard disk and CD

drive and if you have card readers then the letter assignment can be all

over the place!



So, to answer your question, at the setup screen partitions are ordered

as they are laid on the disk.



John



PRR wrote:

> It seems like you are describing how Windows assigns letters to label

> the partitions. I am talking, however, about how they appear when you

> are about to re-install Windows. I'm not sure if the labels "C" and

> "D" will appear in the screen, when you are choosing which partition

> to install to...

>

>

> On Mar 10, 4:29 am, John John - MVP wrote:

>> If you only have one hard disk the "active" partition will be enumerated

>> as drive C.

>>

>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825668

>> Overview of PNP enumeration and hard disk drive letter assignments in

>> Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP

>>

>> John

>
 
Thanks to you all for your replies. Yes you did answer the question--

the active, C partition would then have been listed first--also, as

was mentioned, that installing Windows onto a partition that already

had an installation of windows would have given me a warning message,

so I shouldn't reinstall if I DIDN'T get that message.



On Mar 11, 6:35 am, John John - MVP wrote:

> The drive letters are really quite irrelevant they are merely symbolic

> links to NT objects and these symbolic links are only specific to the

> operating system.  You can have more than one NT (XP) version installed

> on the computer and the letters could be completely different from one

> installation to the other.  You could be booting with the CD to the the

> Setup program or to the Recovery Console and the letters could be quite

> different than what they are in the up and running Windows installation.

>

> Partitions don't have drive letters, they are numbered, the symbolic

> link will link a letter to the partition number.  An MBR disk can have a

> maximum of 4 partitions and these partitions are numbered 1 to 4.  At

> the setup screen the partitions will be shown in their order on the

> disk, if you have 3 partitions they will appear as such:

>

> x: Partition 1

> x: Partition 2

> x: Partition 3

>

> If there are no active partitions on the disk the setup program will

> assign letter C to the first partition and letter D to the CD drive and

> then letter the other partitions with the next available letters.  In

> the above example assuming that there is only one hard disk and one CD

> drive in the computer the setup screen would usually show something like

> this:

>

> C: Partition 1

> E: Partition 2

> F: Partition 3

>

> If you were to flag the second partition as active the setup program

> would show something like this:

>

> E: Partition 1

> C: Partition 2

> F: Partition 3

>

> Along with this the setup program shows the size of the partitions so

> knowing how big your partitions are is always useful when trying to

> identify the partitions.  If you have more than one hard disk and CD

> drive and if you have card readers then the letter assignment can be all

> over the place!

>

> So, to answer your question, at the setup screen partitions are ordered

> as they are laid on the disk.

>

> John

>

>

>

> PRR wrote:

> > It seems like you are describing how Windows assigns letters to label

> > the partitions. I am talking, however, about how they appear when you

> > are about to re-install Windows. I'm not sure if the labels "C" and

> > "D" will appear in the screen, when you are choosing which partition

> > to install to...

>

> > On Mar 10, 4:29 am, John John - MVP wrote:

> >> If you only have one hard disk the "active" partition will be enumerated

> >> as drive C.

>

> >>http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825668

> >> Overview of PNP enumeration and hard disk drive letter assignments in

> >> Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP

>

> >> John- Hide quoted text -

>

> - Show quoted text -
 
"PRR" wrote in message

news:98ab01eb-1a49-4357-869a-819b51d530ab@k36g2000prb.googlegroups.com...

> The last time I reinstalled XP, Windows gave me the choice of

> partitions to install into. Because I had previously divided my two

> partitions (one for Windows and programs, the other for documents)

> equally, I wasn't entirely sure which to install to, and cancelled out

> of the installation. No big problem, since I double-checked, then

> started the reintall again.

>

> Next time this happens, I'm wondering--is there an order in which the

> two partitions will appear? Does the one on the top refer to the

> partition with the earliest letter (as in, partition C will always

> appear right before partition D)? Or is it based on size? Or is it

> based on...





"PRR" wrote in message

news:1c8d50b1-5a42-4cda-8e5d-804024827e81@g8g2000pri.googlegroups.com...

It seems like you are describing how Windows assigns letters to label

the partitions. I am talking, however, about how they appear when you

are about to re-install Windows. I'm not sure if the labels "C" and

"D" will appear in the screen, when you are choosing which partition

to install to...





PRR:

To follow-up on the info you've already rec'd from John & Technomage and in

the context of your specific example...



1. We'll assume that when you refer to a reinstall of the XP OS you're

referring to a Repair install of that OS accomplished through a boot to the

XP OS installation CD and undertaking the Repair process.



2. Presumably you would begin the process at the "Welcome..." screen by

pressing Enter to set up XP.



3. The next screen will list the current OS installed and you would have an

option to Repair the currently installed OS or an option to install a fresh

copy of the OS. The currently installed system would be identified by its

drive assignment letter, presumably C: in the vast majority of cases. No

partition number would be reflected; merely the drive letter. Thus you could

begin the Repair process, i.e., reinstall of the OS, at that point.



4. Now if you did choose to install a fresh copy of the OS (rather than

undertaking a Repair install of the current one) then the next screen would

display the numbered partitions together with their drive letter

assignments. So that in your example "C: Partition1" and "D:Partition2"

would be listed.



If, on the other hand, you had a bootable OS and for one reason or another

decided to "reinstall" the OS, you could of course do that after booting to

your Desktop and inserting your XP OS installation CD and selecting the

"Upgrade" option. Under those circumstances neither any drive assignment

letter nor any partition number would be displayed or listed; the reinstall

of the OS would simply proceed. For all practical purposes, the resultant

process would be substantially the same as undertaking a Repair install of

the OS via a boot to the XP installation CD as described above.



I don't know whether any of the above further clarifies this matter for you

but I thought I would just pass it on in case it did.

Anna
 
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