How do you assign a driver letter to a partition before you install Vista?
Start the computer from the Windows Vista product DVD.
-->Repair your computer,
-->System Recovery Options dialog box,In the next System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
At the command prompt, type diskpart, and then press ENTER.
-->select disk 0.
-->clean
-->create partition primary size=1500
-->assign letter=S
--> active
--> create partition primary
-->assign letter=C
-->list volume
--> exit
--> format c: /y /q /fs:NTFS
--> format s: /y /q /fs:NTFS
-->exit
To install the Vista in the C: drive, the large partition,
In the System Recovery Options window, use the close window icon in the upper right (or press ALT+F4) to close the window to return to the main installation screen. (Do not click Shut Down or Restart.)
Click Install now and proceed with the Windows Vista installation process. Install Windows Vista on the larger volume, C: (the operating system volume).