Problems with drive letter assignments when installing Windows 2000 and XP

[Deathbliss]

MODERATORS:
If this is not the best place for this thread feel free to move it.

OK, so here is my problem. I have a number of partition mangers I can use, and I'm getting some messed up results. I bought a Western Digital hardrive for my laptop, a Gateway 450RGH. If mempory serves I used Easus Partition Manager to set up my drive like this:

C WinXP (primary, active) 10.01 GB
D Win2K (primary) 10.01 GB
E Programs 40.01GB
F Data 40.01GB
G Downloads 49GB
Z DVD drive (assigned in Windows after install, unless there is another way...)

All are NTFS with default cluster sizes. It's a 160GB drive. I had to jump through some hoops to get the Windows 2000 to see things in the order I set, and I then installed it into D. After that I installed WinXP onto C: Things were great until I ran a recovery program by Disk Internals, after recovering some files I start my laptop to get a blinking cursor on a blank screen.

So being the smart person I thought I was I simply started up my imaging software to restore the WinXP image - except that I didn't have a partition image but a file image, so my backup program failed me (Acronis).

So I deleted the WinXP partition and quick reformated to NTFS, and ended up having to do the same to Win2K, but now WinXP is showing on C when I run the Windows 2000 installer disk, but Windows 2000 is on G!

So I tried a new program that could change drive labels AND letters, @active, and from the Windows XP CD environment I changed all the drive labels, except now I had another problem. My largest, 49 gb partition, which was made at the end of my drive, has been moved up next to the Primary partitions, throwing Data and Programs out of wack, I'm still trying to figure out how that happened, because I certainly didn't spend the last 8 hours moving 100+ gigs of data around, so how in the hell did it get moved to another spot on the disk? Has it really been moved, or is it just showing up there? I guess this is my next question, but first...

How in the world do I keep the Windows installer (I'm installing from CD-ROM) from changing my drive letter assignments? Because after I did my work in @active, I put in the Windows 2000 install disk and found that Win2K was once again on G, even though I had changed the label to D!

What is the best way to get Windows to do what I want it do? How do I set in stone the drive letters and labels, so that nothing will move the around or mess with them? Is there a program, like a partition editor or something, that can be used to do this? Ultimately what I want to know is, how do I get Windows to install on D like I want, with C being the primary, active partition where I will later install Windows XP?

Last but not least, what are your recommendations for partition management, including changing partition drive letters and labels, backing up the partition table assignments once I have them like I want, and backing up the primary partitions themselves once I have installed and run basic configurations of both OSes. Is there a complete, reliable, trustworthy all-in-one solution for this out there? If not, if I need multiple programs, is there way to put them all on one boot disc with a custom menu?

If this is not the best forum for this question, but you happen to know of a better one, feel free to let me know. I really would appreciate all the help I can get on this. Running Linux off a flash drive until I get things going again. BTW, deleting reformatting the entire drive is NOT an option - I have nowhere to back up up to. I was working on that, clearing another drive, when the blank hit the fan. I need two OSes because the Win2K OS is for older video games, and WinXP is my main OS.

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this -
- Deathbliss

[Expertz]

If you delete a partition during Setup, create a new partition using the new unpartitioned space, and then install Windows 2000 in the new partition, Setup may change some of the drive letters on the computer. For example, assume you have a computer with one hard disk and two partitions, drive C and drive D, and a CD-ROM drive E. If you then delete the drive D partition during the Windows 2000 installation, create a new partition using the new unpartitioned spaced, and install Windows 2000 in the new partition, when Setup is finished you may find that Windows 2000 was installed on drive E and the CD-ROM drive has become drive D. To preserve drive lettering, delete and re-create the appropriate partition, and then restart Windows 2000 Setup. You can also delete and re-create a new partition outside of the Setup process, by using another operating system, by using the Windows 2000 Recovery Console tool, or by using a boot disk that contains partitioning software.

[Deathbliss]

Thank you for your reply - I really appreciate it!

The problem is that I have created the partitions, in the correct order on the disk, and had blank WinXP and Win2K partitions NTFS formatted and ready to go on install. But when I set about installing either OS Windows assigns a drive letter after all my other drive letter assignments, and what I need to be able to do is to change that.

I found Paragon Partition Manager and it has the option to change the drive letters, but it says you need to select the disk and the partition in order to change a drive letter and I can't get it to work.

I need other suggestions as far as partition managers that will allow you to change the label AND the drive letter, outside of any Windows environment because when I used @Active, which has this option in @Active Windows, it didn't stick like I already said

Keep in mind I am an intermediate - advanced computer user who has been running partitioning and imaging software, as well as Windows 98 through Windows XP, for 10 years or so now. So I know what a partition manger is, and I've installed Windows at least a few hundred times. That said my issue., as I previously detailed, has gone beyond the limits of my understanding.
- Deathbliss