G
Guest
I have two hard drives installed and I want to change my main drive's letter
to c as it is now F. Do you foresee any problem with this?
Thank you
to c as it is now F. Do you foresee any problem with this?
Thank you
Xandros said:You won't be able to do this non-destructively as drive letter C is assigned
by the BIOS and not by the OS. If you have XP installed to F and want it
installed on C you will have to do a fresh install ensuring you install it
to the C drive.
I have two hard drives installed and I want to change my main drive's
letter
to c as it is now F. Do you foresee any problem with this?
James G. said:I have two hard drives installed and I want to change my main drive's
letter
to c as it is now F. Do you foresee any problem with this?
Thank you
James G. said:I have two hard drives installed and I want to change my main drive's
letter
to c as it is now F. Do you foresee any problem with this?
Thank you
Jeff Johnson said:Changing the drive letter AFTER installing an OS is possible, but it's not
pretty and it's FOR EXPERTS ONLY. I have the opposite situation to yours:
I generally do NOT want my OS to be on C: but on a different drive letter.
Unfortunately, while Windows gives you the choice of partition to install
your OS onto during setup, it does not allow you to CONTROL the drive
letters of those partitions. (Vista is even worse, FORCING whichever
partition you choose to be named C:, but I digress.)
If you cannot force Windows to install on the drive letter you want, your
best bet to to change drive letters immediately after installing. This
will reduce the number of registry changes you have to make later.
I know you've heard this before, and many times it's just paranoia, but
the registry changes I'm about to suggest should ONLY be performed if your
REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. This is DEFINITELY something that could
render your system unusable (i.e., require a repair/reinstall) and you
should have a rescue disk prepared.
The first thing you should do is to export your HKLM and HKCU keys to a
text file. I won't give you step-by-step directions because if you don't
know how to something that simple then it's a red flag that you shouldn't
be trying this procedure at all.
You should then go get some coffee or your beverage of choice and prepare
for a fun search-and-replace session with a text editor as you search the
files you created to change all occurrences of "F:\" to "C:\". I usually
view each change (as opposed to doing Replace All) because sometimes you
might not actually want to change one. I just make sure that what I'm
changing always looks like a path.
Now you're ready to change the system drive. To do this (which can't be
done via the Disk Management snap-in), open Regedit and go to
HKLM\MountedDevices. Here you will see values like
\DosDevices\C:
\DosDevices\F:
(I'm only showing the two disks that you want to swap. There may of course
be others. Ignore them.)
Rename one of those keys to something else (I pick an unused drive, like
Q:, so that I only have to change one character). Now you have, for
example,
\DosDevices\C:
\DosDevices\Q:
Now name C: to F:
\DosDevices\F:
\DosDevices\Q:
And now name the "placeholder" to C:
\DosDevices\F:
\DosDevices\C:
(This is conceptual; Regedit will always resort and C: will appear before
F:. I just wanted to demonstrate which value I was changing each time.)
Now cross your fingers and reboot. Windows may complain about some stuff,
but it should boot. If not, well, that's what you made that rescue disk
for.
Now double-click those two .REG files (your HKLM and HKCU where you
swapped all the F:\'s to C:\'s) to import them. All your programs should
start working normally again. If you experience flakiness, reinstall those
programs that you can. Again, it's best if you do this immediately after
installing the OS (and before activation) so that your system is "bare"
and there's very little that needs fixing to begin with.
I have provided rope and several disclaimers. Hang yourself at your own
risk.
Maybe I missed something. I don't see how the registry can access
anything on C:\ after the transition as nothing has been copied over to it
from F:\...
John John said:That is incorrect, the BIOS does not assign drive letters, drive letters
are assigned by the operating system.
John
Xandros said:hmmmm. So the BIOS doesn't assign drive letter A or B to floppies and
doesn't assign C to HD0? Why or why does it say so in my CMOS settings
then????
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