How to assign a drive letter in Windows XP

This post describes how to assign, to change, or to remove drive letters on a drive, a partition, or a volume by using the Disk Management snap-in in Microsoft Windows XP. This post provide step by step windows xp support to assign drive letter, change drive letter, remove the drive letter.

The Disk Management snap-in is an administrative tool for managing hard disks and the volumes or partitions that they contain. Use the Disk Management snap-in when you want to add, to change, or to remove drive letters on drives, on partitions, or on volumes on your computer's hard disks, CD-ROM drives, and other removable media devices.

Your computer can use up to 26 drive letters, from A through Z. Use drive letters C through Z for hard disk drives. Drive letters A and B are reserved for floppy disk drives. However, if your computer does not have a floppy disk drive, you can assign these letters to removable drives.

Before you modify drive-letter assignments, note the following items:

• Changing the drive letter of the system volume or the boot volume is not a built-in feature of the Disk Management snap-in.
• MS-DOS-based and Microsoft Windows-based programs refer to specific drive letters for environmental or other variables. If you modify the drive letter, these programs may not function correctly.

How to assign a drive letter
To assign a drive letter to a drive, a partition, or a volume, follow these steps:

1. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.

Note If you do not see Performance and Maintenance, go to step 3. Performance and Maintenance appears in Control Panel only if you use Category view. If you use Classic view, Performance and Maintenance does not appear.
3. Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in the left pane.
4. Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
5. Click Add.
6. Click Assign the following drive letter if it is not already selected, and then either accept the default drive letter or click the drive letter that you want to use.
7. Click OK.

The drive letter is assigned to the drive, to the partition, or to the volume that you specified, and then that drive letter appears in the appropriate drive, partition, or volume in the Disk Management tool.

How to change a drive letter
To change an existing drive letter on a drive, on a partition, or on a volume, follow these steps:

1. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
3. Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in the left pane.
4. Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
5. Click Change.
6. Click Assign the following drive letter if it is not already selected, click the drive letter that you want to use, and then click OK.
7. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the drive letter change.

The drive letter of the drive, the partition, or the volume that you specified is changed, and the new drive letter appears in the appropriate drive, partition, or volume in the Disk Management tool.

How to remove a drive letter
To remove an existing drive letter on a drive, on a partition, or on a volume, follow these steps:

1. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
3. Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in the left pane.
4. Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
5. Click Remove.
6. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the removal.

The drive letter is removed from the drive, from the partition, or from the volume that you specified.

How to Configure Windows XP Start with Clean Boot Mode

If your computer is not starting normally, or if you receive errors when you start your computer that you cannot identify, you could consider performing a "clean boot." This operation starts the computer by using a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. This can help you troubleshoot the computer problem.

After you configure Windows XP to use a clean boot, some programs may not work as expected. When you return Windows XP to a Normal startup type, the programs work again.

Manual Steps To Configuration

Step 1: Start the System Configuration Utility

1. Click Start, click Run, type msconfig, and then click OK.
2. The System Configuration Utility dialog box is displayed.

Step 2: Configure selective startup options

1. In the System Configuration Utility dialog box, click the General tab, and then click Selective Startup.
2. Click to clear the Process SYSTEM.INI File check box.
3. Click to clear the Process WIN.INI File check box.
4. Click to clear the Load Startup Items check box. Verify that Load System Services and Use Original BOOT.INI are checked.
5. Click the Services tab.
6. Click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box.
7. Click Disable All, and then click OK.
8. When you are prompted, click Restart to restart the computer.

Step 3: Log on to Windows

1. If you are prompted, log on to Windows.
2. When you receive the following message, click to select the Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows start check box, and then click OK.

Notes

• You have used the System Configuration Utility to make changes to the way Windows starts.

• The System Configuration Utility is currently in Diagnostic or Selective Startup mode, causing this message to be displayed and the utility to run every time Windows starts.

• Choose the Normal Startup mode on the General tab to start Windows normally and undo the changes you made using the System Configuration Utility.

Step 4: Optional step to disable features
If the clean boot fixed the error, you do not have to perform this step.

Important If your problem is not fixed and you do have to follow this step, it permanently removes all restore points from your computer. The System Restore feature uses restore points to restore your computer to an earlier state. If you remove the restore points, you can no longer restore Windows to an earlier state.

This step temporarily disables Microsoft features such as Plug and Play, networking, event logging, and error reporting.

1. Click Start, click Run, type msconfig, and then click OK.
The System Configuration Utility dialog box is displayed.
2. Click the General tab, click to clear the Load System Services check box, and then click OK.
3. When you are prompted, click Restart to restart the computer.

If these steps helped you start your computer in a clean-boot state, you are finished. If these steps did not help, go to the “Next Steps” section. If you have to return your computer to a normal startup state, go to “Steps to configure Windows to use a Normal startup state”.

Steps to configure Windows to use a Normal startup state
After you used the clean boot to resolve your problem, you can follow these steps to configure Windows XP to start normally.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type msconfig, and then click OK.
The System Configuration Utility dialog box is displayed.
3. Click the General tab, click Normal Startup - load all device drivers and services, and then click OK.
4. When you are prompted, click Restart to restart the computer.

If this steps not able to solve your problems get Computer Support to Troubleshoot your Computer

Troubleshoot Floppy Disk Drive Problems in Windows

This post lists troubleshooting tips you can use to help resolve problems with floppy disk drives in Windows.This provide step by step Windows XP support to troubleshoot this issue.

Start Windows in Safe mode and try to access the floppy disk drive. To start Windows 95 in Safe mode, restart your computer, press the F8 key when you see the "Starting Windows 95" message, and then choose Safe Mode from the Startup menu. To start Windows 98 in Safe mode, restart your computer, press and hold down the CTRL key after your computer completes the Power On Self Test (POST), and then choose Safe Mode from the Startup menu.

If you can access the floppy disk drive, follow these steps:

1. Use the right mouse button to click My Computer, then click Properties on the menu that appears.
2. Click the Device Manager tab.
3. Double-click Floppy Disk Controllers.
4. Click the floppy disk controller for the drive you are having problems with, then click Properties.
5. In Windows 95, click the Original Configuration (Current) check box to clear it. In Windows 98, click the Disable In This Hardware Profile check box to select it. This disables the Windows protected-mode driver for the floppy disk drive controller.
6. Click OK.
7. Restart Windows normally.

If you can access the floppy disk drive successfully after following the above steps, the following conditions may be true:

The floppy disk drive controller may not be supported in protected mode.
There are drivers loading in the Config.sys or AUTOEXEC.BAT file that may be necessary for protected-mode access.
There are drivers loading in the CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT file that may be causing conflicts in Windows and need to be disabled.

If you still cannot access the floppy disk drive after following steps 1-7, follow these steps:

1. Use the right mouse button to click My Computer, then click Properties on the menu that appears.
2. Click the Device Manager tab.
3. Double-click Floppy Disk Controllers.
4. Click the floppy disk controller, and then click Remove to remove the controller.
5. Click OK.
6. In Control Panel, double-click Add New Hardware.
7. Click Next, and then click Yes to allow Windows to detect the hardware in your computer.
8. When the Add New Hardware Wizard is finished, restart the computer and try to access the floppy disk drive again.

Redetecting the floppy disk controller should resolve any addressing problems with the controller by detecting the correct address range. If the floppy disk controller is not detected correctly, there may be a problem with the floppy disk controller. If the floppy disk controller is redetected but you still cannot access the floppy disk drive, there may be a problem with the floppy disk.

How to repair operating system

This Post provides How to repair operating system,how to restore the operating system configuration to an earlier point

This post discusses how to repair operating system and how to restore the operating system configuration to an earlier point in time in Windows Vista. It describes how to use the System File Checker tool to scan and replace system files in scenarios where you are troubleshooting an issue in Windows Vista. It also discusses how to use the System Restore tool to restore the operating system configuration to an earlier point in time.

INFORMATION

The System File Checker tool
To determine whether the issue that you are experiencing is caused by one or more system files that are used by Windows Vista, run the System File Checker tool. The System File Checker tool scans system files and replaces incorrect versions of the system files by using the correct versions.

To run the System File Checker tool, follow these steps:

1. Click Start , and then type cmd in the Start Search box.
2. Right-click cmd in the Programs list, and then click Run as administrator.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue
3. At the command prompt, the following line, and then press ENTER:

sfc /scannow

When the scan is complete, test to see whether the issue that you are experiencing is resolved. If the issue that you are experiencing is not resolved, use the procedure that is described in the "The System Restore tool" section.

To restore the operating system to an earlier point in time, follow these steps:

1. Click Start , type system restore in the Start Search box, and then click System Restore in the Programs list.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue.
2. In the System Restore dialog box, click Choose a different restore point, and then click Next.
3. In the list of restore points, click a restore point that was created before you began to experience the issue, and then click Next.
4. Click Finish.

The computer restarts, and the system files and settings are returned to the state that they were in at the time that the restore point was created.