Why is The C drive the C drive?

[madboy33]

Hi all

I know this sounds a strange question, but why is the Hard drive called "C" and not the "A" drive?

I mean surely it would be logical to call the HDD the "A" drive and then each and every one after that the B, C, D, E. etc etc

Can anyone come up with a logical answer to this one?

[mark2]

History I think.

In my 1st days of trying to use a comp, BBC and MS dos, 2 floppies in use, one with the program A and the floppy to write/save to was B

Gave up for a long time after that until windows came into use.

[Prince of Calcutta]

well the A drive is assigned to the floppy drive and B for the 2nd floppy drive or 5½" drive if you wish to add one i think.. so the next available letter C goes to the hard drive ?

not too sure what this is about ? :unsure:

maybe since we sometimes boot from floppies it would make sense giving it the first letter?

[madboy33]

So why has it not been changed then to HDD to "A" drive and floppy to "B" etc etc

move with the times and all that?

[Prince of Calcutta]

force of habbit ? guess people got used to having their floppy drive as A....

maybe on the new dell machines which do not have a floppy drive by default the hard drive might have been labeled as A

but it doesnt really make any difference does it..whatever name you call it ?

and if you use xp . you can assign your floppy drive the letter Z if you want and give your hard drive the letter A ..

[madboy33]

Thanks folks

Going to close the 2 threads now