I have software that will back up to A or B drive. How can I get
windows xp to redirect the B drive option to a ZIP drive that is
designated drive F. it would be acceptable to permanently change the F
drive designation to B.

suprascapular-ga:

Assigning a drive letter is a lot easier in Windows XP than in some of
the previous versions of Windows. The following Microsoft Knowledge
Base article discusses this in detail:

KB307844 How to change drive letter assignments in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307844

The short version:

Note: this assumes you do NOT have a floppy drive using drive letter
B: already. If you do, you will need to unplug it first to free up the
drive letter for reassignment.

1. Right-click on 'My Computer', and select 'Manage'
2. Select 'Disk Management' from the left-hand pane of the window that appears
3. On the right-hand pane, locate your ZIP drive (it will be one of
the removable drives, and should be currently associated with F:)
4. Right-click on the drive and select 'Change Drive Letters and Paths'
5. Click 'Change'
6. Change the drive letter from 'F:' to 'B:'
7. Click OK, click OK again, close the Management Console, you're done. 
8. Reboot, and see if your change has worked.

If you run into any problems making this change, please let me know
with the "Request Clarification" button above and I will do my best to
help you!

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

Thanks a lot. Prompt and clear