C drive is gone

[Zilver]

Hello,
I need some serieus help on a friends PC; Pentium 3 / 2HDD split into 5 parts/ Windows 2K Pro / NTFS.
After booting the PC goes black screen halfway the W2K welcome screen. I've tried to do a recovery / reinstall, but the only opion available was a clean reinstall (format) and that wasn't an option because of the data that is on the C drive.
To be able to access the PC, I've installed XP on another partition (E)...
To my surprise the C-drive with W2Kpro (called Windows) is renamed into I-drive (with all data intackt). Is there an easy way to undo this strange thing or is a full format the only option left?

thx for any help

Zilver

[Zilver]

Maybe as extra info: I was told that the problem started (with the black screen) after a run of Adaware SE - Xoftspy - Spy Cleaner Gold. One of the 3 proggies didn't respond during the run and was stopped (alt+cntrl+del). The PC stayed slow and did a memory dump. The garbishbin was emptied and then a restart-reboot... with the black screen as result (an a phonecall to me)

Zilver

[robbyg]

I am far from an expert on this topic, but I know what I would do...and that is: Save everything you want to keep, either to disk or one of your many partitions, and do what I call spring cleaning... reformat all partitions(except the one with your stuff on it...lol)

Any special reason for the many partitions?

[Zilver]

I am far from an expert on this topic, but I know what I would do...and that is: Save everything you want to keep, either to disk or one of your many partitions, and do what I call spring cleaning... reformat all partitions(except the one with your stuff on it...lol)

Any special reason for the many partitions?

Additional information: C: is free to use cause when I put my USB stick in a free USB slot, it takes C: as a driveletter in stead of a free one at the end of the row.

So far my friends came up with 2 options (besides the format)
1. Making windows boot from I: in stead of C: by tempering the boot.ini, but I'm not sure this will help/work and then all the shortcuts will be lost, so bad idea.
2. Logging in in safe mode and changing the driveletter again with partition magic from I: to C:


To answer your Q about the many partitions:
It is part of my household manners to make a easy to find something PC:

C: Windows and nothing else
D: Backup of doc & set / install files /temp internet files etc
E: Media (music and movie)
F: Programs
G: Games
H: DVDR/Wdrive


Zilver

[SanHood]

Are you using any Third party disk Partition software?
I would go into Disk management~right click My computer-manage-disk management.
Try Renaming the Drives. Check Support.microsoft.com for the instructions.
I think it says not to play with the C: drive in case the Windows is booting from it.