I have always had a two drive system until this latest build. I now have one big hard drive. I partitioned the hard drive into two partitions,, one for the os, and one for storage.
after screwing up the new build (don't ask.. I was being stupid))
I went in to reinstall windows again. I deleted the C partition, and remade it, during the partion section of the installer. After I deleted the partition, it bumped the storage partition to C and I ended up installing to D. (wish I noticed that before I hit the go button)

There is no way to change this after windows is installed?

Do not try to dual boot windows with the same copy, it will lock your key, then you have to call and get it fixed.

So far the work around is fdisk,, although it threw me for a loop to see the second partion at 49 gig instead of 260 gig (dos limitation)

Is there anyway to get windows to stop making my storage drive C when I delete C?

I am sure I will be playing with all the new toys and have to reinstall again after a couple of weeks (I just have to see what all the options can do!)

for those that want to know
amd 64 3500+
asus an8 sli premium
geforce 6800 gt sli
maxtor 300 gig sata 150 w/ncq
2 gig corsair xms

This may help.

Download TweakUi complete with install instructions
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp
http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/c/a/fca6767b-9ed9-45a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/windowsxp_pt.asp
Open Tweakui, click on the + next to > My Computor > Drives & tick the drive letters required.

Also this.

HOW TO: Change Drive Letter Assignments in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307844
http://www.dougknox.com/xp_drive_letters.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/tips/april/knox1.asp
http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=434&dPage=13
When you add drives to your computer, such as an extra hard drive, a CD drive, or a storage device that corresponds to a drive, Windows automatically assigns letters to the drives. However, this assignment might not suit your system; for example, you might have mapped a network drive to the same letter that Windows assigns to a new drive. When you want to change drive letters, follow these steps:

Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
Under Computer Management, click Disk Management. In the right pane, you’ll see your drives listed. CD-ROM drives are listed at the bottom of the pane.

Right-click the drive or device you want to change, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
Click Change, click Assign the following drive letter, click the drive letter you want to assign, and then click OK.

Changing drive letters using Disk Management sometimes creates conflictions. Go back through the XP setup process and partition your drives correctly.

www.monkonline.tk

The OS won't let you change the letter associated with the boot partition.

Just a consideration but so what if the boot/system drive is d:? You are going to go through all this work just to have it be "perfect"? Doesn't make a difference to XP. Why should it make a difference to you?

If you want to go to all that trouble then download the newer version of Fdisk which can address larger drives. Fdisk and format c: not using XP. Make sure c: is active in fdisk. Then do your xp install. Since the drive letter is already enumerated you shouldn't have a issue with it becoming d:

Golly gee wilerkers everyone. Learn to Internet Search

thanks for the responses,, but wanderer is correct.

microsoft states ,, in the first link provided

"• Changing the drive letter of the system volume or the boot volume is not a built-in feature of the Disk Management snap-in. "

wonderer states "Doesn't make a difference to XP. Why should it make a difference to you?" --- I'm not really sure, it shouldn't matter to me,, but it does.
I just have to have the operating system on C. (Probably growing old, and narrow minded)

Oh yeah,, before I rebuilt the last time,, I found some directions online about tweaking the registry in order to change the boot drive letters. I printed them off and followed them exactly. It didn't work either, Actually locked the machine.. but I was going to rebuild anyway

I was just wondering if there is a way to not have the built in installer (during the xp install from microsoft) switch drive letters when I delete the C partition and recreate it.

Where is the new version of fdisk... and how many gigs will the new version see ?

I makes a big diffrence actualy. many poorly written applications dont get system faves and hardcode C:\ ... many do actualy. It just happened to me and my HD is now F: and a few applications wont update allready.. :(