When you create a primary partition on a second hard drive the mounting of
that partition/drive is controlled by the M/B, using accepted DOS standards.
If you want all of the partitions you create to be "after" the letters
already assigned to partitions on the main drive, you want to create all
logical partitions.
Example:
Master drive has partitions as follows:
C: Primary partition for operating system
D: Logical partition for programs
E: Logical partition for music/photos
Now you add a second drive, partitioned as follows:
Primary partition
Logical partition
Logical partition
When you reboot the computer the following will occur:
Master drive:
C: Primary partition for operating system
E: Logical partition for programs
F: Logical partition for music/photos
Second drive:
D: Primary partition
G: Logical partition
H: Logical partition
This is because the primary partition on the second hard drive will
automatically be assigned the next letter after the other primary partition.
The logical partitions will be renamed accordingly, after D:. The logical
partitions on the main drive will be assigned the lower letters. The logical
partitions on the second drive will take off where the main drive stops.
If you want the drive enumerations on the second drive to be sequential to
those on the main drive, you will want to have all logical partitions on the
second drive.
Now, to make it even more interesting:
1. If you have a zip drive connected while you are setting up your system
it will "always" assume itself to be drive C: This will change everything
else you plan to do.
2. If you have a CD drive and a second DVD drive attached prior to
installing the second drive, the letter assignments for these drives will
preempt what you think would be the letters on the second drive. The way to
handle this is to assign the optical drives as Drive Y: and drive Z: This
get them out of the way so they don't interfere with anything you do on the
hard drives.
3. If you use a boot manager program, such as System Commander, you can
have as many primary partitions as you want. You can set up System Commander
to automatically "hide" all primary partitions except the one you are
booting into. All you will see when in Windows is the C: drive you have
booted to and the logical drives - in proper sequence.
All of this information, and much more, is available in the wonderful
reference that comes with Partition Magic. I suggest you go to the Symantec
web site and download a copy for study. It is most informative.
BTW: Symantec didn't do the work on this manual. It all comes from the
previous owner PowerQuest.
The reference that comes with System Commander is also a wonderful source.
If you read, and understand, the information in these manuals you will have
no problems at all in setting up a great computer system.
--
Regards,
Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
