changing drive designation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mr.Nick
  • Start date Start date
Mr.Nick said:
Hi, how do I change my HDD drive letter?
Click to expand...

Start button -> Help and Support
search for:

change drive letter

You'll notice the article that appears titled,
"Assign, change, or remove a drive letter".
Click on it.

It explains it much better than we could, and the help is already on your
system, which is a plus.
 
Is it possible to change the boot drive letter though? Windows says it
can't.

Is this true?

Thanks.
 
Mr.Nick said:
Hi, how do I change my HDD drive letter?
Click to expand...

Shenan said:
Start button -> Help and Support
search for:

change drive letter

You'll notice the article that appears titled,
"Assign, change, or remove a drive letter".
Click on it.

It explains it much better than we could, and the help is already on
your system, which is a plus.
Click to expand...
Is it possible to change the boot drive letter though? Windows says it
can't.

Is this true?
Click to expand...


Ouch. Another one of those that had some device that made your system
install itself on a drive letter other than C:\, eh? Well, let me tell you
now, the recommended way is NOT the way I am going to give you last. THIS
is:

Unhook all drives(zip, other hard drives, etc) except the drive you are
installing Windows XP onto and the CD drive you are using to do it from.
Perform a clean installation onto this drive.

Having said that, if you are willing to try, you can follow the steps
outlined below. If you have applications installed, likely all hell will
break loose if you are successful and even get the machine to reboot and let
you logon. You may even have to perform a repair installation after you do
the following to even be able to get that far. Then all the registry
entries for your individual applications (Office, for example) will be
messed up still and you will have to reinstall all of those. In the end,
you are better off and use less time just backing up your files and doing
the recommended thing about a clean install. However:

For the most part, this is not recommended, especially if the drive letter
is the same as when Windows was installed. The only time that you may want
to do this is when the drive letters get changed without any user
intervention. This may happen when you break a mirror volume or there is a
drive configuration change. This should be a rare occurrence and you should
change the drive letters back to match the initial installation.

To change or swap drive letters on volumes that cannot otherwise be changed
using the Disk Management snap-in, use the following steps:

Note: In these steps, drive D refers to the (wrong) drive letter assigned to
a volume, and drive C refers to the (new) drive letter you want to change
to, or to assign to the volume.

1. Make a full system backup of the computer and system state.
2. Log on as an Administrator.
3. Start Regedt32.exe (or Regedit.exe in Windows XP).
4. Go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

5. Click MountedDevices.
6. On the Security menu, click Permissions.
7. Check to make sure Administrators have full control. Change this back
when you are finished with these steps.
8. Quit Regedt32.exe, and then start Regedit.exe.
9. Go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

10. Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for
"\DosDevices\C:".
11. Right-click \DosDevices\C:, and then click Rename. In Windows 2000 you
must use Regedit instead of Regedt32 to rename this registry key.
12. Rename it to an unused drive letter "\DosDevices\Z:". (This will free up
drive letter C: to be used later.)
13. Find the drive letter you want changed. Look for "\DosDevices\D:".
14. Right-click \DosDevices\D:, and then click Rename.
15. Rename it to the appropriate (new) drive letter "\DosDevices\C:".
16. Click the value for \DosDevices\Z:, click Rename, and then name it back
to "\DosDevices\D:".
17. Quit Regedit, and then start Regedt32 (not required in Windows XP).
18. Change the permissions back to the previous setting for Administrators
(this should probably be Read Only).
19. Restart the computer.


Restore the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223188

Change Drive Letter Assignments in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307844

Unable to Log on if the Boot Partition Drive Letter Has Changed
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=249321
 
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