Long story short, I kinda fucked up the install of XP on another PC we have. Luckily the disc was partitioned for just such an occasion so files should be safe, but anything installed (OS + programs) is gone. Kinda ironically it was trying to adjuct the sizes of partitions that caused the problem.. but that's beside the point

So now I have a disc with an unpartitioned space where Windows used to be, then 2 partitions (one full of data, one empty) that take up the rest of the disc (although I have yet to find out whether my data actually survived all this - haven't installed any OS yet)

I put in the Windows disc and go into the install process, get to the point of partitioning, and then I realise - it's decided that the 2 data partitions are going to be C: drive and E: drive, and the new install is going into the newly created G: drive

Not ideal, not ideal at all

So is there any  way to tell it that those drive letters want to be a different way round - C: for the install, and E + F for the data

I know from experience that it won't want to change the drive letters after the event - I ended up with Windows installed  to D: last time I had a fuckup like this, but at that point I had no data to worry about so I just wiped the disk and started over

Anyone? SK would be very grateful if you knew how to make this work 

do you want to change the drive letter after you install or before you install?

Doesn't matter any more - I decided to go for the cop-out way of just letting it install however the hell it likes, evacuating all my files to other storage then nuking the drive and starting over

Although if you know a method, doing it before install would be preferable - as I said, from experience it doesn't like it if it you try and change the drive letter of the system volume after installation

It should prompt you before installing where you want the system files to go,  if doing a clean install.  Just say c: and go.

My windows install had gotten corrupted so I removed the partition for drive C: using the partition tool on a linux live CD because its graphical and easy to use (remembering that the installer would want me to do this in the installation process before  it would agree to install anyway)

Then the windows installer decided that the remaining file-storage partitions were drives C: and E: and that the new partition that was about to receive a windows install was G: (don't know what happened to F: but there you go)

So I needed some way to tell it what drive letters each partition should be before it became set in stone by the fact that it was the System Volume 

If you removed the c: partition, the installer won't see it.  You should have just installed over the corrupted files, or deleted them leaving the partition intact.  Are you booting off the XP install disk?

its a moot point now - I installed it to G: evacuated all my data, nuked the whole drive and started again from scratch (and now its more or less working) but I'll remember that if it happens again

now i'm just havin problems with installing java and updating AVG - both are exhibiting some strange errors

oh, and installing drivers for a new piece of hardware (a video capture card), but i think thats a problem with the CD the drivers are on.. damn taiwanese cd-burning people........ (grr)

Yeah, a clean install is the best option.  I don't use third party partitioning tools after a bad experience with partition magic.  Maybe there are better tools around now, but unless it's windows-native, I don't use them.  If you have the space, image your drive off to some other place with  ghost (or equiv. tool).  Then you can just copy the changed files to somehere else,  reload the image and copy them back.  I find this is a good way to mitigate disasters, although it takes a bit of room to store the ghost image somewhere.  Storage is cheap these days.  I bought a 320GB PATA Maxtor from frys.com for $ US 70.

Any ideas on what would make java fail to install, telling me that it hit an error related to renaming/deleting a certain file (the error message specifically said the problem was with "renaming/deleting" a file)?

Or what would make a driver installer freeze in mid-installation and just stop responding (no error message given)? Other than their just being a problem with the disc 

It could be a permission problem, or your version of Microsoft Installer is old, or corrupt.  I had a neighbour who could not install a printer driver as Microsoft Installer was corrupted.  There's a microsoft knowledge base article on this.  I thought at first it was a file permission issue, even though I was installing as admin. 

mm.. I have installed other things recently though, so I'm guessing its not a corrupted version of MS Installer.. maybe I should test out the CD on a system that I know works