I got an ol Dell 8250 which came with a 30 Gb hd. I put in a 2nd 80 Gb hd cable select. The original drive has always shown up as C: and the other F:
I reinstalled Windows XP and was prompted to format the "C: partition". When it rebooted, Windows was installed on my 2nd drive, previously F:. Now, what was F: is C: and C: is now D:, even though it's still hardwired in there the same as it always was.
Both drives have been jumpered as they came from the factory as cable select. It's been that way for seven years with no problems. The drive Windows is now booting from is still in the 2nd bay with the 2nd connector on the ribbon from the motherboard. Many tech are urging me to jumper one as master and one as slave. I actually tried that and switched bays and connectors...it wouldn't boot. Any input here about this?

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