B
Bob G
Here is the situation. I hope I can clearly present my problem. It is
quite complex.
My nephew has a computer that came with an 80 GB hard drive.
When he bought the computer I carved out two partitions on the drive
dynamically with partition magic release 8.
I have him about 10 Gig for his "C" drive and the rest was assigned to an
"E" drive.
I instructed him to intstall all software to the "e" drive and also keep
backups of his computer, pictures, etc. on that "e" drive.
I generally do this, because I like to have a backup of the operating system
drive "C", so that when windows crashes so badly - you cannot even boot it -
and system restore is worth squat... I have a utility - acronis true image -
in which I can restore his operating system drive, "C" quite easily and
quickly. I've saved his ass many times - as he has done things to render
his computer unbootable.
As time went on, his 80 gig drive began to run out of space. Currently he
has about 1 gig free on his "C" drive and around 8 gig free on his "E"
drive.
I suggested he buy a bigger drive, then I would clone both the C and E
partitions to the bigger drive with acronis true image or acronis disk
director suite.
I cloned the orignal drive to the new, bigger 130 GB wd raptor drive.
Everything went fine, except the "E" drive, when cloned to the new harddrive
took on the drive letter "D". "C" remained "C" on the new drive.
There are programs & utilities that reside on E, that if not there, render
windows xp home unbootable.
So I have this second, bigger hard drive with two partitions on it. One
partition drive lettered C and one partition drive lettered "D". C on the
new drive is a clone of C on the old drive. "D" on the new drive is a clone
of "E" on the old drive.
The problem is... WINDOWS will NOT boot because it is looking for programs
on a drive lettered "E" not "D".
I found this diskpart command which I thought would do the trick.
Unfortunately the version of diskpart in the recovery console is completely
different than the version of diskpart in a fully up and running windows.
Diskpart in the recovery console CAN NOT CHANGE drive letters.
I'm looking for a utility that either runs off a bootable CD or diskette
that will allow me to change the drive letter "D" to "E" without having
windows booted.... as I cannot even BOOT windows because the operating
system is looking for required programs on a drive lettered "E" to boot.
I have been pulling out what little hair I have left over all of this. The
acronis software is crap. It will NOT (either true image or disk director
suite) change windows drive letters from their bootable CD's.
Can someone share a utility with me that I can boot off of via CD or
Diskette to change drive letter assignments outside of a bootable windows?
Is there anything I can do from the recover console to do the job - the
version of diskpart under recover console is useless when attempting to
change drive letters.
If it's possible to do under recover console, I would really appreciate
DETAILED instructions on how to go about this.
I am so damned frustrated, I've been working at this for at least 20 hours
now.
I'm sorry for any posts the other day that may have offended anyone here,
it's just my level of frustration.
I love this community for the answers that are shared, and I'm really hoping
somebody can point me into some direction to resolve this issue.
Thank you very much in advance,
If there is anything I've left out, or anything you don't understand about
the situation, please ask me, and I'll do my best to explain the problem
better.
Sincerely,
Bob Grozier
quite complex.
My nephew has a computer that came with an 80 GB hard drive.
When he bought the computer I carved out two partitions on the drive
dynamically with partition magic release 8.
I have him about 10 Gig for his "C" drive and the rest was assigned to an
"E" drive.
I instructed him to intstall all software to the "e" drive and also keep
backups of his computer, pictures, etc. on that "e" drive.
I generally do this, because I like to have a backup of the operating system
drive "C", so that when windows crashes so badly - you cannot even boot it -
and system restore is worth squat... I have a utility - acronis true image -
in which I can restore his operating system drive, "C" quite easily and
quickly. I've saved his ass many times - as he has done things to render
his computer unbootable.
As time went on, his 80 gig drive began to run out of space. Currently he
has about 1 gig free on his "C" drive and around 8 gig free on his "E"
drive.
I suggested he buy a bigger drive, then I would clone both the C and E
partitions to the bigger drive with acronis true image or acronis disk
director suite.
I cloned the orignal drive to the new, bigger 130 GB wd raptor drive.
Everything went fine, except the "E" drive, when cloned to the new harddrive
took on the drive letter "D". "C" remained "C" on the new drive.
There are programs & utilities that reside on E, that if not there, render
windows xp home unbootable.
So I have this second, bigger hard drive with two partitions on it. One
partition drive lettered C and one partition drive lettered "D". C on the
new drive is a clone of C on the old drive. "D" on the new drive is a clone
of "E" on the old drive.
The problem is... WINDOWS will NOT boot because it is looking for programs
on a drive lettered "E" not "D".
I found this diskpart command which I thought would do the trick.
Unfortunately the version of diskpart in the recovery console is completely
different than the version of diskpart in a fully up and running windows.
Diskpart in the recovery console CAN NOT CHANGE drive letters.
I'm looking for a utility that either runs off a bootable CD or diskette
that will allow me to change the drive letter "D" to "E" without having
windows booted.... as I cannot even BOOT windows because the operating
system is looking for required programs on a drive lettered "E" to boot.
I have been pulling out what little hair I have left over all of this. The
acronis software is crap. It will NOT (either true image or disk director
suite) change windows drive letters from their bootable CD's.
Can someone share a utility with me that I can boot off of via CD or
Diskette to change drive letter assignments outside of a bootable windows?
Is there anything I can do from the recover console to do the job - the
version of diskpart under recover console is useless when attempting to
change drive letters.
If it's possible to do under recover console, I would really appreciate
DETAILED instructions on how to go about this.
I am so damned frustrated, I've been working at this for at least 20 hours
now.
I'm sorry for any posts the other day that may have offended anyone here,
it's just my level of frustration.
I love this community for the answers that are shared, and I'm really hoping
somebody can point me into some direction to resolve this issue.
Thank you very much in advance,
If there is anything I've left out, or anything you don't understand about
the situation, please ask me, and I'll do my best to explain the problem
better.
Sincerely,
Bob Grozier