i was wondering if someone can tell me if its possible to reboot windows xp onto my 'c' drive without losing the programs etc. on my 'z' drive?
i have used partiton magic to create the partition and i am confused as to what i am actually able to do?!?
please help!

I don't use any partitions myself, but, as I understand it, the individual partitions are recognised as seperate drives, by the operating system.

Therefore, drive C should not cause any problem with F, as it's just like having two drives.

Hope this helps.

Partitions are like separate drives. However any programs installed on a partition other than C: still uses the registry on C:. Therefore if you are talking about clean installing XP on C: then programs no matter where they are installed will need to be reinstalled as you have wiped and recreated a new registry.

A Repair Install will not affect your programs as it will not overwrite the registry.

I am assuming you mean a Clean or Repair Install when you say "reboot windows xp onto my 'c' drive".