# Hard Drive Letter Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 25, 2005, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-drive-letter-question/337130 "2005-12-25T03:02:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_the_turtle/32/2926_2.png) [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-drive-letter-question/337130/1 "2005-12-25T03:02:52Z")
I just replaced a hard drive with a new drive, first copying all the data, but the system has swapped the drive letters so it doesn’t see the old programs that were installed on the old drive. I have 4 drives (3 HDD and a DVD). C and D are OK (on IDE 0), but E and F got swapped (E was the old HDD and F the DVD. Is there any way to tell the computer to swap the drive letters? During the boot, it recognizes the HDD as IDE 1 Master; the DVD as IDE 1 Slave, but the computer sees them as E = DVD and F = HDD. Does the position on the IDE cable matter? The installation manual says to connect the slave to the grey (middle) and master to the black (end), which is what I did. Also - to install the new drive, I first disconnected my DVD (F) and installed the new HDD there so I could format the drive (I used the included Seagate Disc Utilities) and copy the data from my old E. So the computer would have first seen it as an F. Does that matter? I’m pretty sure I’ve done it that way in the past, but it’s been awhile. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-drive-letter-question/337130/2 "2005-12-25T03:17:54Z")
> [@Fear the Turtle](#): > > I just replaced a hard drive with a new drive, first copying all the data, but the system has swapped the drive letters so it doesn’t see the old programs that were installed on the old drive. I have 4 drives (3 HDD and a DVD). C and D are OK (on IDE 0), but E and F got swapped (E was the old HDD and F the DVD. > > Is there any way to tell the computer to swap the drive letters? During the boot, it recognizes the HDD as IDE 1 Master; the DVD as IDE 1 Slave, but the computer sees them as E = DVD and F = HDD. Does the position on the IDE cable matter? The installation manual says to connect the slave to the grey (middle) and master to the black (end), which is what I did. > > Also - to install the new drive, I first disconnected my DVD (F) and installed the new HDD there so I could format the drive (I used the included Seagate Disc Utilities) and copy the data from my old E. So the computer would have first seen it as an F. Does that matter? I’m pretty sure I’ve done it that way in the past, but it’s been awhile. Assuming you’re using WinXP or 2000, you can change the drive letter in the Disk Management console. I’m not in front of my home computer right now but I’ll come back later with the specifics if no one else chimes in. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-drive-letter-question/337130/3 "2005-12-25T03:26:34Z")
Go to Start-Run entry window and type in “diskmgmt.msc” without the quotes Discussion of how to use it here [Hard Disk Management in Windows XP- the Console](http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/harddrive2.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_the_turtle/32/2926_2.png) [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-drive-letter-question/337130/4 "2005-12-25T03:33:11Z")
Thanks guys, got it. Pretty simple process once you get to the right screen. Pretty sure I’ve used that in the past but forgot where it was. The old programs are even running, which is kinda amazing considering how twitchy Windows XP is. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-drive-letter-question/337130/5 "2005-12-25T03:44:38Z")
> [@Fear the Turtle](#): > > …considering how twitchy Windows XP is. :dubious: My experience with XP has been fantastic. By far and away the most stable and problem-free Windows OS to date, IME. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-drive-letter-question/337130/6 "2005-12-25T04:34:00Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > :dubious: > > My experience with XP has been fantastic. By far and away the most stable and problem-free Windows OS to date, IME. Would have to agree with that. I leave mine on for days at a time. I might reboot on average once every five days, and that is often because I’ve done something dumb. Admittedly, I had previously used nothing more modern than Win95 on my own machines! That thing didn’t like running more than about six hours.