Reboot after deleting partitions.

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Sid Elbow - 26 Jul 2008 00:37 GMT

If you do a new Win2K install and first delete any existing partitions,
you need to reboot after that to avoid unexpected drive letters.

Does anyone know if the same is true for XP?

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Dave Patrick - 26 Jul 2008 03:31 GMT

I believe it is a good time saving practice.

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Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

> If you do a new Win2K install and first delete any existing partitions,
> you need to reboot after that to avoid unexpected drive letters.
>
> Does anyone know if the same is true for XP?

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Sid Elbow - 26 Jul 2008 15:57 GMT

It wasn't really time saving that I was concerned with so much as having
the new OS installation show up as a C-partition as opposed to some
other drive letter.

> I believe it is a good time saving practice.

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Dave Patrick - 26 Jul 2008 17:08 GMT

Correct, and that's was the gist of the statement. It saves time by not
having to start over because the drive letter is incorrect.

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Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

> It wasn't really time saving that I was concerned with so much as having
> the new OS installation show up as a C-partition as opposed to some other
> drive letter.

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Andy - 26 Jul 2008 03:50 GMT

>If you do a new Win2K install and first delete any existing partitions,
>you need to reboot after that to avoid unexpected drive letters.
>
>Does anyone know if the same is true for XP?

What unexpected drive letters? If you look at the Windows setup screen
that shows the drives and their partitions, the drive letters that are
shown next to the partitions are the same drive letters those
partitions will have in the installed Windows.

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Sid Elbow - 26 Jul 2008 15:56 GMT

> What unexpected drive letters? If you look at the Windows setup screen
> that shows the drives and their partitions, the drive letters that are
> shown next to the partitions are the same drive letters those
> partitions will have in the installed Windows.

Perhaps "unexpected" is the wrong word - "inconvenient" might be more to
the point.

Lets say you currently have a C-partition (containing a bootable OS).
You decide to dump the OS on C: and install Win2K in its place.

So you boot to the Win2K CD and use the option to delete the partition
on C: If you then immediately create a new partition and continue the
install, the new install partition won't be created as C: (because C:
was existing and enumerated when you booted and the Win2K install
doesn't re-use the drive letter - it simply picks the next available
letter).

This isn't an actual problem but it's a bit "inconvenient" to have an OS
who's boot partition and all path references are to, say, E: (not to
mention that some application installs still seem to assume C: as the
location for, say, <Program Files> instead of actually checking).

The solution usually recommended is to reboot the install immediately
after deleting the original C-partition so that the drive is
re-enumerated. However, I thought I had heard that the XP installation
takes care of this by re-allocating the drive letter after partition
deletion .... but I'm not sure.

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Andy - 27 Jul 2008 06:57 GMT

>> What unexpected drive letters? If you look at the Windows setup screen
>> that shows the drives and their partitions, the drive letters that are
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>doesn't re-use the drive letter - it simply picks the next available
>letter).

I've never seen that happen. When you delete the C: partition, the
drive letter is freed. If you immediately recreate it, the partition
becomes C: again.

>This isn't an actual problem but it's a bit "inconvenient" to have an OS
>who's boot partition and all path references are to, say, E: (not to
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>takes care of this by re-allocating the drive letter after partition
>deletion .... but I'm not sure.

Doing that is a recipe for making the primary partition not C: if
there are other existing partitions. When you restart Windows setup,
it will assign drive letters beginning with C: to the already existing
partitions, so when you recreate the primary partition it will not be
C:.

Unless you want to change the partition size, there is no reason to
delete the partition. Just select the partition to install Windows,
and you will be offered the option to format the partition before file
copying begins.

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John John (MVP) - 27 Jul 2008 13:27 GMT

>>>What unexpected drive letters? If you look at the Windows setup screen
>>>that shows the drives and their partitions, the drive letters that are
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> drive letter is freed. If you immediately recreate it, the partition
> becomes C: again.

It is something that happens frequently enough, users have often
reported and asked about this drive lettering behaviour in these groups.
The time it takes to reboot is less than the time spent reinstalling.

Setup Changes Drive Letters After a Partition Is Deleted and Reinstalled
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/225025

John

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Sid Elbow - 28 Jul 2008 01:42 GMT

> It is something that happens frequently enough, users have often
> reported and asked about this drive lettering behaviour in these groups.
> The time it takes to reboot is less than the time spent reinstalling.
>
> Setup Changes Drive Letters After a Partition Is Deleted and Reinstalled
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/225025

FWIW, I tried it both ways for an XP install.

- I booted the XP install CD, deleted the original (first) C-partition,
created a new partition and immediately installed XP. The OS showed up
as E:

- I then rebooted the XP install CD, deleted the first partition,
created a new partition then canceled the setup and rebooted. I then
installed to that partition and the OS showed up as C:

So, same behaviour as Win2K apparently.

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