Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 19090 2002-05-08 10:37:00 Load a new drive?? Guest (0) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
47766 2002-05-08 10:37:00 I have seen computers that have a C drive how do i go about loading another drive eg E drive for storing business information
thanks
Guest (0)
47767 2002-05-08 10:57:00 Basicly you buy another drive, and plug it in. There is of course a wee bit more to it than that, but without any knowledge of what you all ready have it is rather hard to tell you the details of what you need to do.
By default HD1='C' HD2='D' CDrom='E' You can change this but there isn't that much gained unless you have specail needs. Having said that, i like to call my zip drive 'Z' just cause i can.
Guest (0)
47768 2002-05-08 12:35:00 There is a lot more.


Drive lettering relates to physical hard disk partitions.

A partition is a subdivision of of a physical hard disk and the subdividing is done by using a partitioning utility. The most common example is MS fdisk, though others include gdisk, efdisk as well as Partition Magic.

All hard disks can have a maximum of four 'primary partitions' though the usual is two. A primary partition can be bootable though only one partition can be bootable at any time.

One - and only one - of the primary partitions can be designated as an extended DOS partition. This serves as a 'container' for further subdivisions or 'logical drives' of a physical hard disk. Neither logical drives nor an extended DOS partition can be set as bootable.



There is no maximum limit - save the size of a physical hard disk - to the number of logical drives that can be created within an extended DOS partition. There is however, a limit to the total number of drives any Windows OS can 'see'. This is 26 corresponding to each letter of the alphabet.

Given that letters A and B are allocated for floppy drives and C is allocated to the first bootable primary partition on the first physical disk, only a maximum of 23 (other primary partitions or logical drives) will be recognised by Windows at any given time.



Also, the installation of other devices - CD Rom drives, Zip drives, tape drives etc - reduces the maximum number of drive letters once a drive letter is allocated to each device.

Additionally, the order in which drive letters are set in a DOS OS (up to and including Win Me) is predefined. See support.microsoft.com

It is possible to redesignate drive letters in Win NT (includes 2k and XP).




So to come back to your question, yes it is possible by either installing another physical disk or repartitioning your existing one.

Installing another physical disk involves partitioning since new disk do not come partitioned.

Installing a physical disk or repartitioning an existing disk (using Partition Magic for example) without reinstalling Windows may create problems since the Windows registry will contain references to the CD Rom drive letter. Once a new drive is formated and given a drive letter, the CD Rom drive letter may be changed (depending on the type of OS installed).
Guest (0)
1