# I pit Palm, my computer dealer, and my own rotten luck **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 15, 2004, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-palm-my-computer-dealer-and-my-own-rotten-luck/255311 "2004-07-15T19:51:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-palm-my-computer-dealer-and-my-own-rotten-luck/255311/1 "2004-07-15T19:51:22Z")
We haven’t been having a very good time with our computers recently at the Fagtorium. Dear old Beulah was on the way to giving up the ghost, so I got a new computer. I had them take the hard drive out of Beulah and load it into the new one. They installed the old hard drive as C: and the new one (which I had bought a few months previously, but which Beulah did not accept) as F:, even though it was the boot drive. By and by, C: crashed … right in the middle of the election … and gradually rendered the entire computer inoperable. I took it in, and they disconnected it. Fortunately I had already moved my documents to F:. However, some programs did not approve of this. I had tried to install the desktop software for my Palm onto F:, but it didn’t work. It insisted on being in C: and since C: was no longer present, there was nothing doing. I emailed Palm for help with this. Their instructions allowed me to install the Palm desktop program. It did not, however, allow me to HotSync my Palm. I emailed them back. I was in the middle of following their instructions (involving the \*subst c: f:\* command to make my f: drive look like my c: drive) when the computer abruptly crashed. And didn’t wake up. When I rebooted, Windows tried repeatedly to start. But each time it arrived at the safe mode screen, whatever I chose, it rebooted. And when I tried to reinstall Windows… it said I had no hard drives at all. Now my computer is in the shop. To put the icing on the cake, last night I had to change the batteries on my Palm, something I’ve done several times before. But this time, I must have taken just a little too long, because all of my data – my address book, my agenda, all my course notes from the last term, and my notes from the election – went bye-bye. With no backup. Since the Palm desktop software hasn’t been working since my first hard drive crashed. And since my attempts to get it working again crashed the other one. _takes a deep breath_ \ ***FUCK!!** \* Thank you. (Oh, and if I have your address, I don’t anymore. Please send it to [matt\_mcl@hotmail.com](mailto:matt_mcl@hotmail.com) .) ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-palm-my-computer-dealer-and-my-own-rotten-luck/255311/2 "2004-07-15T19:55:13Z")
Forgot to say: I’m pitting Palm for making a piece of software that can’t deal with any drive other than C: and that can crash my hard drive. I’m pitting my computer store for having set up the drives with that fucked-up lettering anyways. Just for good measure, I’m pitting Windows for not letting me reassign drive letters the way I want them, and for crashing at the drop of a hat. And I’m pitting my own rotten luck for just that one second too long at changing the fucking batteries. I think that should do it. _stomps off in a snit_ ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-palm-my-computer-dealer-and-my-own-rotten-luck/255311/3 "2004-07-15T20:04:30Z")
I recently had the same battery issue happen with my Palm VIIx. I lost 2 years of accumulated data that I had last backed up three months ago. My condolences for the loss. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-palm-my-computer-dealer-and-my-own-rotten-luck/255311/4 "2004-07-15T20:12:08Z")
I’m not too much of a technician, but it sounds like the root of the problem here is the computer shop installing a drive as C that had traces of a previous Windows installation on it. They should have used the newer (presumably empty) one, and all would have been fine, I think. So your gripe is with the computer shop, not Palm. Incidentally, try and switch the two drives: you only need to switch the cables and the slave/master settings. Then reinstall Windows on the new C (which is now F). Chances are the PC will work just fine. The old hard drive might still be fucked, though. ---
**Author:** ![factorial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ed8c4c/32.png) [@factorial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/factorial)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-palm-my-computer-dealer-and-my-own-rotten-luck/255311/5 "2004-07-16T00:39:59Z")
You can change the drive letter of your drive if you’re ever able to get back into Windows. Windows 2000/XP: Hit Start \> Run \> Type in diskmgmt.msc \> Hit OK In the upper list of drives, right-click the drive whose letter you wish to change and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths” Windows 95/98/Me: Had to look it up [http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article02-024](http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article02-024) Keep in mind that to change “F” to “C” you’ll have to change “C” to something different first. You also might have problems with already-installed software now failing to work as it looks in the wrong place for files. (i.e. what was once at F:\Blah\ is now at C:\Blah.) Start Menu shortcuts may be broken but this is trivial to fix. Of course, I disavow any responsibility if this messes up your computer worse than before. The entire “drive letter” paradigm is really stupid anyway. Not that any other system is any better. (/dev/hda/ is just as inscrutable and meaningless as C:\ I guess.) I hope you are able to get things fixed up. ---
**Author:** ![Hauky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/0ea827/32.png) [@Hauky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hauky)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-palm-my-computer-dealer-and-my-own-rotten-luck/255311/6 "2004-07-16T02:46:09Z")
Actually, Windows (2K/XP at least, never tried it on 9x) gets really, _really_ pissed off if its system drive letter (C:, or in this case, F:) changes. Any other letter is fine to be screwed with, but not Windows’ home drive. Supposedly, there’s a way to do with without a complete format-‘n’-reinstall, but I’ve never had it work. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-palm-my-computer-dealer-and-my-own-rotten-luck/255311/7 "2004-07-16T16:00:41Z")
Computer’s back and put right. Thank gods for my warranty/service plan. There used to be a function wherein you could set a certain amount of space on one hard drive aside under a different drive letter. Can you still do that under Windows XP? Is it safe? ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-palm-my-computer-dealer-and-my-own-rotten-luck/255311/8 "2004-07-16T16:13:35Z")
Yeah, that’s called making “partitions”. Not entirely sure how it’s done, but my XP-box has its C drive split into a C and D section. So it can be done, and I’m sure it’s quite harmless. Perhaps a Help search on “partitioning” will render some insight? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-palm-my-computer-dealer-and-my-own-rotten-luck/255311/9 "2004-07-16T20:12:12Z")
You can only set up or alter partitions on an empty drive, before installing Windows (in fact before formatting), unless you get a third-party partition manager program - I’ve heard good things said of Partition Magic, but I’ve never has cause to use it. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-palm-my-computer-dealer-and-my-own-rotten-luck/255311/10 "2004-07-16T20:23:53Z")
> [@Coldfire](#): > > Yeah, that’s called making “partitions”. Not entirely sure how it’s done, but my XP-box has its C drive split into a C and D section. So it can be done, and I’m sure it’s quite harmless. Perhaps a Help search on “partitioning” will render some insight? You can also use “subst” to make a folder on one drive appear to logically be a different drive entirely. We used to do this at my old job… everyone on the team would make a folder on some local drive which they would subst to be R:. Thus, all of our tools could be written knowing that they would be running from a fixed drive letter (R:). (This probably doesn’t apply to your situation here, however.) ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-palm-my-computer-dealer-and-my-own-rotten-luck/255311/11 "2004-07-16T20:43:06Z")
What the flip’s going on … ? I managed to trash all the data on my Palm just a couple of days ago. Is there some global Palm-disrupting agency on the loose? Has anyone checked the prophecies of Nostradamus to see if a global PDA plague was foretold? I think the truth should be known … ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-palm-my-computer-dealer-and-my-own-rotten-luck/255311/12 "2004-07-16T20:57:32Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > You can also use “subst” to make a folder on one drive appear to logically be a different drive entirely. We used to do this at my old job… everyone on the team would make a folder on some local drive which they would subst to be R:. Thus, all of our tools could be written knowing that they would be running from a fixed drive letter (R: ). > > (This probably doesn’t apply to your situation here, however.) Does subst work permanently? ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2004, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-palm-my-computer-dealer-and-my-own-rotten-luck/255311/13 "2004-07-18T07:55:11Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > Does subst work permanently? No. But you can put it in a batch file that will be run at startup time. How to do so depends on which version of Windows you’re running.