Can't redo drive letters, can't log as Admin

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave
  • Start date Start date
D

Dave

I just bought a Serial ATA hard drive, and it is my boot drive. Accompanying
that is my old IDE Maxtor hard drive.

The Serial ATA is labeled D:/E: (partitioned) and the secondary is labeled
C:. This isn't right. Here's where it gets stupid.

I just installed XP on my new Serial drive. XP won't allow me to rename
drive letters because both the Serial and the IDE are "system volumes". Does
this mean I have to start from scratch with a new hardware cabling system???
What if I were to log in as Administrator?

But I can't change drive letters, because I cannot log in as Administrator.
I can't log in as Administrator, because I can't get into Safe Mode. And I
CAN'T get into Safe Mode, because since my Serial ATA is labeled D:, it
won't boot from there. So I have to put in my WINDOWS CD every time I want
to start Windows XP! This is why it doesn't respond to F8 to choose
configuration.

Someone, please help! This is very frustrating. Thank you very much...

- Dave
 
Dave said:
I just bought a Serial ATA hard drive, and it is my boot drive.
Accompanying that is my old IDE Maxtor hard drive.

The Serial ATA is labeled D:/E: (partitioned) and the secondary is labeled
C:. This isn't right. Here's where it gets stupid.

I just installed XP on my new Serial drive. XP won't allow me to rename
drive letters because both the Serial and the IDE are "system volumes".
Does this mean I have to start from scratch with a new hardware cabling
system??? What if I were to log in as Administrator?

But I can't change drive letters, because I cannot log in as
Administrator.
Click to expand...

You cannot reassign the drive letters of system volumes because files on
those volumes are in use. Logging in as an Administrator will not change
that fact and doesn't have anything to do with it.

Moreover many links in the registry point to files on those volumes. If you
could reassign the drive letters, those files will be missing at the next
boot. So even if you could, it would render your system unusable.

Some creative registry 'tweaking' would probably make it possible. But I
have never done it before, tried once ;). Re-installing will be much easier
and probably quicker.
I can't log in as Administrator, because I can't get into Safe Mode.
Click to expand...

Uh? Explain.
And I
CAN'T get into Safe Mode, because since my Serial ATA is labeled D:, it
won't boot from there.
So I have to put in my WINDOWS CD every time I want
to start Windows XP! This is why it doesn't respond to F8 to choose
configuration.
Click to expand...

Then where did you install Windows on? And was that after both disks were
installed in the system?

Anyhow, try fixboot and or fixmbr from recovery console for this problem.
Though use with causion.

Xlnt
 
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