Why is the Hard Drive called "C" by default?

You call that historical? How old are you? You know there were floppy
disks before 5 1/4" disks?

Anyway, yes A and B were used for floppy drives. As of about 10 years ago,
all computers came with 3.5" drives, many with 2 3.5" drives for easy
copying of one floppy disk to another, and they were starting to get CD
drives at the same time. So the CD drives ended up being called E or F if
you had 2 hard drives. Now that we can write to CDs and even DVDs, we don't
really use 3.5" disks anymore. So hard drives still start at C, CD drives
still start at E/F, and A and B are generally not used in new computers.

"Og" <Og.TakeThisOut@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:uViDyHzyGHA.4232@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> <ComputerTechGeek.TakeThisOut@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1156830082.806488.44860@74g2000cwt.googlegroups.com...
>> Is there a historical/technical reason why the Hard Drive called "C" by
>> default? Why is it not called "A" (since it is the primary mass storage
>> device on many computer configurations)? What about the "B" drive? Just
>> curious about this.....
>>
>> Thanks in advance
>>
> Short answer: Historical
> Long answer: The first Personal Computers had a single floppy drive (Drive
> "A").
> Users booted from a floppy disk, popped that disk out and inserted a
> floppy disk which contained the computer program that the user desired to
> use.
> Some people wanted to keep their data on a floppy disk "other" than the
> "program" disk. They grew tired of the "floppy disk shuffle" and put a
> second floppy drive into their computers, ("Drive "B").
> Well after hard disks became ubiquitous in PCs, the floppy disk began
> transitioning from size 5 1/4" to size 3 1/2" . For several years during
> that transition phase, many people required a floppy drive of each size in
> order to access older programs/data on the old size disks and their new
> programs on the new size disks.
> Steve
>
 >> Stay informed about: Why is the Hard Drive called "C" by default? 

<ComputerTechGeek DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1156830082.806488.44860@74g2000cwt.googlegroups.com...
> Is there a historical/technical reason why the Hard Drive called "C" by
> default? Why is it not called "A" (since it is the primary mass storage
> device on many computer configurations)? What about the "B" drive? Just
> curious about this.....
>
> Thanks in advance
>

Before bootable CD drives came along, floppy drives were provided with
letters A and B. Now, either the bootable CD or floppy may take A.

The next sequential letter is C. This is usually the first active, primary
partition found on a hard drive. Its also dependent on the
active/primary/logical partition hierarchy scheme system. Its possible to
boot from floppy or CD, and a logical partition may take drive letter C, if
no primary partitions exist for instance.

Originally, PCs had no hard drives. They ran on big oversize floppies. B
designation came later, and was commonly used as a data diskette. The hard
drive came along, and logically, its partition took the letter C.

A cd drive can take the letter C, if no detectible hard drive partition
exists. Designating a latter letter for the cd drive with driver modifier
is the typical solution used. This is only seen with floppy boot media like
a 98 startup diskette for instance. The former can be seen, under the right
conditions, with a simple boot diskette.

Magneto floppies (if not bootable), pen drives, CD/DVD and so forth follow a
letter hierarchy specific to windows. And in some cases, can be modified by
the user. With the advent of XP, even more latitude is provided for drive
letter changes by the user.
--
Jonny
 >> Stay informed about: Why is the Hard Drive called "C" by default? 

On 28 Aug 2006 22:41:22 -0700, ComputerTechGeek.RemoveThis@gmail.com wrote:

>Is there a historical/technical reason why the Hard Drive called "C" by
>default? Why is it not called "A" (since it is the primary mass storage
>device on many computer configurations)? What about the "B" drive? Just
>curious about this.....
>
>Thanks in advance

Because in the old days there were usually two floppies.
 >> Stay informed about: Why is the Hard Drive called "C" by default? 

"Thomas Wendell" <tumppiw_nospam.DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:%2323pspLzGHA.2036@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>
> Vic Baron wrote:
>> True - and prior to THAT there were the Altair and the Imsai 8080
>> using the 8080 chip. Input on the IMSAI was via 16 paddle switches on
>> the front. Output was via the LED's - 16 of them. You input and read
>> data two bytes at a time.
>
>> BTW, those 160k floppy's were 8" discs. I
>
> Wrong! The floppies on the original IBM PC were 5.25" 160kB
> The 8" floppies are from a earlier era
>

IBM used 8inch disks on their "DisplayWriter" word processors, but the
first IBM PC that landed in our office in around 1983 was 5-1/4. It was a
disgraceful piece of engineering by standards of the day.

Bear in mind that 8086 processors were being shipped in 1978/9 and the 486
AN's were about in 83/84 it was a stone age piece of kit.

Steve

Steve
 >> Stay informed about: Why is the Hard Drive called "C" by default? 

"Ron Martell" <ron.martell.TakeThisOut@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d9aef2ll998kut0gbk9dqkhutc0iuiabbm@4ax.com...
> "Steve" <steve> wrote:
>
>
>>IBM used 8inch disks on their "DisplayWriter" word processors, but the
>>first IBM PC that landed in our office in around 1983 was 5-1/4. It was a
>>disgraceful piece of engineering by standards of the day.
>>
>>Bear in mind that 8086 processors were being shipped in 1978/9 and the 486
>>AN's were about in 83/84 it was a stone age piece of kit.
>>
>
> Not quite correct. Intel released the first 80486 models in 1989.
>
> In 1983/84 the highest performing x86 processor from Intel was the
> 80286. The 80386 was first marketed in 1986.
>

I think his point was that the processors were mature when they finally went
into PCs. IIRC the issues at the time were chipsets, which were very
expensive and complicated to design and produce...thus the 386sx...a 386
that ran on a 286 chipset.

-John O
 >> Stay informed about: Why is the Hard Drive called "C" by default?