ARC GIS 9.x tries to help you manage all the data that can be associated with a GIS by making the program ARC Catalog available. ARC Catalog, if used correctly (and that isn't always easy to do!!), helps you organize all your files and keeps ARC knowing where they are.

Out in the business world most people use ARC on the C: drive. Well you can't do this here at SUNY Oneonta if you are a student. So you have to reconfigure your ARC setup to use a different drive - usually your P or W drive. Here's how:

1) First, put all your data in a folder on whatever drive you plan to use. Your P drive can be used, or even a key chain.

2) "Connect " to this drive and folder in ARC as described below:

Connecting to a folder

1. Click the Connect to Folder button .
2. Navigate to the folder or disk that you want to add to the Catalog.
3. Click OK.

Catalog tree.

Tips

• To add a folder connection to a folder that isn't already
  represented in the Catalog, type the full path to the folder into the
  Location text box and press Enter.
  
  
• To add a folder connection to a folder that is already represented
  in the Catalog, drag and drop the folder onto the top-level Catalog
  entry in the Catalog tree. For example, if you frequently work with a
  subfolder in one of your existing folder connections, you can drag the
  subfolder onto the top level of the Catalog tree to make a folder
  connection. This makes it more convenient to work with the contents of
  that subfolder.
  
  
• If a shared folder is unavailable on the network, a little red x
  will appear on the folder connection's icon when you start ArcCatalog.
  The x disappears when the connection is reestablished.

More on this can be found at:

http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.2/index.cfm?id=2374&pid=2372&topicname=Managing_folder_connections

3) You should also make sure you set ARC's feature to know where your data is to "relative". This is done as so:

Creating a map with relative path data

1. Put all the data that will be used to create the map into a directory on a single drive (say your P drive).
2. Add your data to the map.
3. Click the File menu and click Map Properties (ArcMap) or Document Properties (ArcGlobe).
4. Click Data Source Options on the Properties dialog box.
5. Click the option to store relative pathnames, and click OK to apply the settings.
6. Click OK on the Properties dialog box.
7. Click the Publisher menu and click Publish Map.
8. Publish or save the map in a directory that has the same parent directory as the data in the map.

Tip

An example of a relative path is: Project1Boundary.shp. Relative
paths in a map specify the location of the data contained in the map
relative to the current location on disk of the map document (.mxd
file) itself. As relative paths don't contain drive names, they enable
the map and its associated data to be moved to any disk drive without
the map having to be repaired.

For more details on all this and even more ARC help see:

http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.2/index.cfm?id=2833&pid=2827&topicname=Managing_data_sources