Boot partition is on wrong partition

Hello,
I reformated my hard drive and installed windows xp media. Installed a number of smaller programs and tried to install windows xp service pack 3 and received warning that drive did not have enough memory. Message indicated drive E; which is a veryk small partition on my hard drive. Drive C: is the major partition which should be the one chosen however when installin the computer goes right to partition drive E:, how do I get the C: drive partition recognized for installing programs. I had the same problem when I tried to install the Office Home Suite even after telling the installer to go to drive C:. Do I have to go back and re-install Windows xp again.
Elliote