I have 2 hard drives, C and D. If I change the designation are the programs and files automatically changed as well? I want to make D the C drive.

Any data on the drives will inherit the new designation locations. Example; C:\WINDOWS will become D:\WINDOWS etc. Shortcuts etc will update with a "self-imposed search" the first time they are used. (You've probably seen this, the flashlight/torch scans and it will inform you that "The closest instance is X:\xxxxxx. Do you wish the shortcut to be updated to point to this location".)

However, if C: is your O/S drive and you change it to D:, the boot.ini file would have to be altered to reflect the new "WINDOWS" location (disk number/partition number), and you would have to change disk connections inside the machine if your bios doesn't allow choosing the disk the machine boots from.

So in short, the more advisable thing to do would be to clone the C: disk to the D: disk.

Thanks very much for the info Dan, I have an operating system on both drives, C is the original drive but the operating system gave trouble. D is the drive I select to use when starting, it has Windows XP SP2, but the Bios is in C and I can't put it on D which is the main reason that I want to change the designation. D is also a SATA connection but C is a IDE connection. Ultimately I want to remove some of the programs on C then erase it and use it as separte storage for photos. Best regards, Tom

Any progress on this? Have you tried anything?

"... but the Bios is in C and I can't put it on D ..."

Do you mean you can't change the bios to boot from the SATA "channel" as opposed to the IDE "channel"?

Hi Dan, exactly right. Apparently the bios can only be on a C drive and I have assumed that is why I can't set the SATA drive as the boot drive, it is seen as a hard disk. When I start the computer I get a choice of Windows to start if I choose the first I am on the D drive, if I choose the second I am on the C drive. D is sata C is IDE. It may be a problem with the motherboard I have, it's EPoX and I've just found it will not let me have an optical drive on the SATA connection.

What is the make/model number of your motherboard? (Version if evident?)

Have you tried physically disconnecting the IDE drive (data and power connectors) and booting with only the SATA drive connected?
The bios may at that point/hardware detection, allow you to set the SATA as the primary boot device.

Unfortunately XP won't let you change the O/S/drive letter. However, having D: as your O/S drive and the old C: (redisignated to E: before you attempt this) as your new "storage" drive isn't terrible.

I have thought of physically disconnecting the IDE drive but I've been a bit nervous of getting into a very difficult situation, as you've had the same thought I think I'll give it a try at the weekend.

The motherboard is an EPoX 9NDA3J, serial number 4C000404347. I have tried to get assistance from them but just got an email back saying "Sorry,we were closed the business,so we can not to do any technical support now." So not a lot of help there.