Help! What do I do with all these hard drives?

You haven't installed many OSes then, I'm guessing.

Then sorry, but you are a lousy guesser! I've built 100s of computers and installed operating systems on MANY hundreds - probably more than 1000 since the mid 1980s!

If you blank the system volume and Windows picks up other formatted volumes, you'll end up with a new system volume using a letter other than C.

If! If! If!

If you are not paying attention, then you are right! But you need to pay attention during ALL installations - including Windows. Windows will tell you what it is doing. If you haphazardly click the mouse or press a key to move on, then yes, it may install on another disk.

So again, you can't be goofing off. Pay attention and Windows will go where you want it to!

You can pay attention all you want, but if the installer assigns the drive letter F to the system volume, you can't change it...your only other option is to back out and disconnect the drives....

...so, that being said, why not take the ten seconds early on and disconnect the drives first to eliminate extra steps?

...so, that being said, why not take the ten seconds early on and disconnect the drives first to eliminate extra steps?

Certainly, you can do that - and it would not be wrong. But I see that as a waste of time.

Extra steps? When I build a system, I try to foresee what I (or my client) will need, then install all the hardware that will go in the computer during the build. Then there are no extra steps.

Your method would require the user to shutdown after the install, unplug the computer, then install all the extra drives. I see that as many extra steps. I would much rather Windows sees everything during the install, then it can set up IRQs and install the necessary drivers during the install.

your only other option is to back out and disconnect the drives....

Back "out"? No. Back "up" maybe, then select the right drive to format, partition, and install the OS, and press on.

I'm not sure what you are talking about, but you can easily duplicate the situation. If the installers is showing you the available partitions, and the one you want is unformatted...yet there's a formatted partition/drive already in existence....it was assign C to that first partition. You do not have an option or a choice to rearrange the letters at that point. You cannot continue, unless you wish to have your system volume as something other than C.

It's been that way going back as long as Windows has used visual installers. The only way around this, and to use C as the system partition, is to disconnect the drives that are already formatted. If you have some magical way around this, be sure to create a guide and have it pinned here.

Sure you can duplicate the problem, but you can also prevent it from occurring in the first place, with careful planning.

So fine, if you are installing a bunch of drives, and all but the boot drive has been formatted, then you might have some extra steps to take, and disconnecting the extra drives may be easier. But, that is not a typical scenario - exceptions don't make the rule.

Digerati said:

So fine, if you are installing a bunch of drives, and all but the boot drive has been formatted, then you might have some extra steps to take, and disconnecting the extra drives may be easier. But, that is not a typical scenario - exceptions don't make the rule.

It may not be the typical situation, especially not for me, as I blank all my drives anytime I reformated (all two of them)....but given the OP's situation, it is VERY relevant here, and is the solution for the OP.

We aren't debating general concepts...we are here to provide the best answer for the OP. In his situation, the easiest, safest answer is to disconnect....install...reconnect.