Grammar in this sentence

Question

In computers, active storage drives are automatically assigned a drive letter, beginning with the letter A. The DOS operating system followed the drive letter with a colon, as in A: . Prior to flash memory devices, computers incorporated floppy disk drives for portable storage, so the A and B drive letters were preserved by the system to be assigned to these devices. This left C as the first letter available for the hard disk. So it is that the hard disk became known as the C: drive.

Is this sentence in bold grammatical? Can 'that' be used like this?

Is there a typo in the second to last sentence? "This left C is..."

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

English 1b3This left C as the first letter available for the hard disk . ... Is there a typo in the second to last sentence? "This left C is..."

There is no typo. It should be This left C as the first letter .... (C remained as the first letter ....)

English 1b3So it is that the hard disk became known as the C: drive.
Is this sentence in bold grammatical? Can 'that' be used like this?

It's fine. You may simply be parsing it wrong.

So it is = It is like this = It is in this way.

So it is that ....
=
It is in this way that ...

The underlined structure is called a cleft form. It is a cleft form of this:

The hard disk became known as the C: drive in this way.

CJ

Grammar in this sentence

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