how does drive letters get assigned?
I got two seniarios

seniaro 1

primary IDE maste drive
partition 1 x
partition 2 x
secondary IDE master drive
partition 1 x
partition 2 x
partition 3 x


seniaro 2
Primary IDE slave drive
pattition 1 x
partition 2 x

primary IDE maste drive
partition 1 x
partition 2 x
partition 3 x

Secondary IDE master drive
partition 1
partition 2
partition 3

if anybody can respond to this please copy and paste this in the text box and put the correct drive letter in place of the x. Thanks

Which drives have primary(bootable) partitions?

Usually your bootable partition is in your first partition and is assigned as C:\ (because A:\ and B:\ are usually reserved for floppy drives). If there is more partitions on the drive, they will be labeled D:\, E:\, F:\ etc.

Then if you have a CD-ROM on as a slave to your harddrive it will be the next successive letter let's say G:\ for this explanation.

Then your secondary master IDE channel will be listed after the CD-ROM. If there's 3 part's they'll be H:\, I:\ and J:\ Then lastly if there is something on as slave like a burner or DVD on the second IDE cable it will be the last (or set of) letters or K:\ in this case scenario. It would look more like this:

Primary cable assignment
disk drive
partition 1 x = C:
partition 2 x = D:
partition 3 x = E:
partition 4 x = F:
then CDROM as G:

Secondary channel as such harddisk drive (2)
partition 1 x = H:
partition 2 x = I:
partition 3 x = J:
and lastly say a DVD as K:

This is done differently in Win9X/ME and the NT OSes like Win2000/XP - which OS are you using?

How Windows 2000 Assigns, Reserves, and Stores Drive Letters (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q234048)

Order in Which MS-DOS and Windows Assign Drive Letters (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q51978)

Note that Win9X etc always read these letter assignments dynamically so they change much more easily and (except for hiding/unhiding them) are far less under ones direct control.

NT OSes 'attempt' to remember what was there at installation time and this can lead to other problems if you later change (add/remove or hide/unhide) the drives and volumes or reinstate an image file to a different configuration from the original.

However, once you have set things up in NT OSes, you can later change or customise the letter assignments (except for the boot partition letter which you are stuck with) using the disk managment tools of the OS; you can't do this in Win9x etc.

Tip. With multiple drives, try to use logical partitions for all but the boot partition if at all possible. This leads to far less confusion in the long run.

in Windows 9X/ME

All primary dos partitions in order

All secondary dos partitions in order

Other IDE devices (CD's)

Removable media Zip etc

seniaro 1

primary IDE maste drive
partition 1 x C:
partition 2 x E:
secondary IDE master drive
partition 1 x D:
partition 2 x F:
partition 3 x G:


seniaro 2
Primary IDE slave drive
pattition 1 D:
partition 2 H:

primary IDE maste drive
partition 1 C:
partition 2 F:
partition 3 G:

Secondary IDE master drive
partition 1 E:
partition 2 I:
partition 3 J:

You will also have to set the lastdrive parameter in your config.sys file to some letter after the last drive letter you will need to use

This might also provide some insight:

http://partition.radified.com/

Thanks to all who responded. My teacher gave me this assignment so these would be ficticious drives. The reply that classicsoftware wrote seemes more understanderable. but if anybody else has any suggestions please put in your input. Thanks.

Peeps may not have been so accomodating if they had known they were doing someone's homework.

However ...

in Windows 9X/ME

All primary dos partitions in order

All secondary dos partitions in order


... is simplified but not strictly true.

If there are multiple HDDs then C goes to primary partition on master and D, E, etc ... go to the first primary partition on the other physical HDDs (if they exist). Logical drive letters are next assigned for any logical drives on the HDDs in the same order. Finally the HDDs are read again and any further primary partitions (that were not the first partition detected on the first scan) are then added.

That was one of the main reasons for suggesting to only have one primary partition on the boot drive and have all the other partitions as logical ones. If this is done then adding/removing one of the slaves (or the partitions on them) doesn't ever cause the drive letters assigned to the master drive to change (unless a primary partition is added to a slave drive that formerly only had logical partitions on it) and eliminates the need to ever remap the master.

ski asked the most relevant question right at the start, because you must specify whether the partitions are primary or logical before any predictions can be made.

If nothing else, lets hope this thread has been instructive.

It may seem as someone may be doing my homework but posting to this board has actually help me understand how drive letters get assigned. Thanks.

LOL :D

Easy answer for your teacher:

"I use Linux. There are no drive letters." :D

As per MSDN, the following are the basic disk drive letter assignment rules for Windows 2000:

* Scan all fixed hard disks as they are enumerated, assign drive letters starting with any active primary partitions (if there is one), otherwise, scan the first primary partition on each drive. Assign next available letter starting with C:


* Repeat scan for all fixed hard disks and removable (JAZ, MO) disks and assign drive letters to all logical drives in an extended partition, or the removable disk(s) as enumerated. Assign next available letter starting with C:.


* Finally, repeat scan for all fixed hard disk drives, and assign drive letters to all remaining primary partitions. Assign next available letter starting with C:.


* Floppy drives. Assign letter starting with A:


* CD-ROM drives. Assign next available letter starting with D:.