changing drive for new installation of windows 7

I am moving up to windows 7 from xp. My C:\ drive at the moment is an ide one and is at least 10 years old. It's not giving any bother or anything at the moment. I was thinking of putting the new OS on a SATA drive I have in my pc at the moment. If I do this, do I have to rename the disks or can I keep the same letter on the new OS drive as it is now (G:\). The reason I ask is I don't know how this would fare as far as installing the OS and programmes would go as relating to the files going in the registry. Can I give another letter as the root drive instead of C:\ and direct everything to the new drive letter (G:\). Hope I've explained myself okay. If any other info is needed, please ask. Thanks for reading and in advance for any help offered. hedley

There's no absolute rule that says your system files(boot drive) must be C: Having said that you will find that most applications will want to load into C: and you will have to be pretty quick on your feet to redirect them elsewhere….. even so some will persist in wanting to load into C: no matter what you do….. If I were you I would do the following: 1 Make sure all your important stuff is backed up copied archived to removable media, you have an up to date disc image also kept safe on removable media together with a bootable cd (so you can load up your disc image) then you have a fallback position so you can put your system back to exactly how it is now in less time than it takes to walk the dog! 2 Next remove your existing IDE boot drive, Physically unplug it….. ( it then becomes your second copy of your fallback position!) 3 Make sure your SATA drive is recognised in the BIOS and install your Operating system to this……it will automatically become your C drive and applications should load them selves to it with the least amount of fuss. Regards paws

Not sure I completely understand, but if I'm right you are concerned about where new installs will be routed too if your keep the same drive letters as is ? My best advice would be disconnect the ide drive BEFORE installing, also unplug any other attached devices, including USB hubs and card readers, as these can get in the way of drives being labelled the way you want. I take it your not after wiping the ide drive at this stage ? Thats fine, but what it will mean is you will have what they call a dual boot system, this means you could boot to xp or windows 7, you may need to change the drive priority's in the bios so you pick up the Sata drive with windows 7 as the master disk, which I assume is the aim here ? IMHO keeping the C drive designation is easiest for the OS install, and this is the only drive letter you can't change (the OS drive that is), all other drives can be changed in the admin control panel, so install to the Sata drive with everything else disconnected, once complete shut down and add the ide drive back in and boot up again, hopefully this would then become the D drive, if it doesn't but you want it too be, then if the optical drive has retained the D designation, we can change that easily if need be. Simply add everything back that was disconnected installing drivers before connecting until complete, and your done, by have the OS drive as the C drive installs will go to the correct place as standard, it's easier than messing about worrying over every install, then should you boot to the ide drive and need to install anything, look at the default install location it suggests and change if needed before continuing, hope this helps. *edit Arrrgghh curse my slow typing lol.

Thanks for the replies. I intend removing my ide altogether and just use the sata drive. Didn't know whether the sata drive would become the default C:\ or not, hence my question. 8210Guy: You mention disconnecting any hubs etc before installing windows 7. I have another ide drive and a second sata drive, all internal. Also, 2 external drives and 2 optical drives. All my drives are partitioned into 3 and 4 drives. Should I disconnect all of these before installing the new OS. Any time I reinstalled windows xp, I didn't disconnect these other drives and although, after installing windows xp, the drive letters were all different, I changed them back using disk management. Which would be best, disconnecting all drives, including optical drives, or renaming drives afterwards (if this is possible in windows 7). Sorry if this is a bit longwinded. Thanks for the help. Much appreciated, as always.

Well the others may of had better luck than I installing, but I have found the way I suggested to be the surest way of making the OS drive the C drive, you could try installing without disconnecting the other drives (optical drives make no difference), just take notice of the install at the point too where it states the install location, if this does not show as being the Sata drive and being the C drive, then stop and unplug the ide drives and hubs etc, printers and the like should not be connected during an install anyway, as they need to have the driver installed before connecting the device. So try with all connected, but be aware of which drive you select, and watch out to see it becomes the C drive, if it doesn't (which is what I have found personally) then just unplug the ide drives and card readers, as these are picked up as drives as well, as you say drive letters can be changed, all but the OS drive that is, so as long as you can select the Sata drive and have it recognised as being the C drive, then thats all you need, the rest can be edited after the install, hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply and the advice. It will be a time before I'm installing windows 7 yet due to health, I'm just covering all my basis before I get that far. If I get stuck at the time, I'll know where to turn. Thanks again for the help. Much appreciated, as always. hedley