I have a harddrive that is partitioned into four partitions, C, D, E and F. I would like to install another drive with info I would like to copy to the four partition drive but every time I try, it changes the letters on the four partition drive and screws up some of the programs that was regonizing, say D, and now it is at E. My question: is there a way to keep the four partition drive from changing drive letters and make the slave drive accept an unassigned letter like G?

Normally the answer is no. Only way is to use partition magic on the drive and make the primary partition an extended one in a different system. Then move the drive to the present system. Welcome to the world of drive letter enumeration.

The drive letters are assigned based first on whether it's the master or slave drive and then by the type of partition/volume. Primary partitions are assigned first then the logical drives. So, if you have 2 drives that each have 2 partitions (1 primary and 1 logical) then drive C is the primary on the master and drive D is the primary on the slave. Drive E is the logical drive on the master and Drive F is the logical on the slave. Now that that's been said, (using W2K and above) you can go into 'Disk Management' and reassign the drive letters for all but the system and boot partitions (which normally is drive C).