Drive Letter Screwup

  • Thread starter Thread starter AlBro
  • Start date Start date
A

AlBro

Does anyone know of a way to change the drive letter of
the XP boot volume? When I installed XP my hard drive
defaulted to E:\ rather than C:\, and now some programs
(e.g. Matlab student version) evidently won't run. I saw
on the MS site that the problem is related to the
presence of a ZIP drive on install, which I have, but
does not seem to offer information on how to change the
main hard drive letter itself. I can change the other
drive letters, but not the bootable one (E:\).

Thanks in advance for any help!
 
-----Original Message-----
Does anyone know of a way to change the drive letter of
the XP boot volume? When I installed XP my hard drive
defaulted to E:\ rather than C:\, and now some programs
(e.g. Matlab student version) evidently won't run. I saw
on the MS site that the problem is related to the
presence of a ZIP drive on install, which I have, but
does not seem to offer information on how to change the
main hard drive letter itself. I can change the other
drive letters, but not the bootable one (E:\).

Thanks in advance for any help!
.-------------------------------
Click to expand...
You cannot change the drive letter of the system volume or
boot volume.
With regards,
ssg
pronetworks.org
 
You've said that your hard drive "defaulted" to E: rather than C:. What
that means I'm not sure, but it is possible to change these letter
assignments.
Before you try this, unless you have an easy way to restore, have you
tried changing ZIP drive letter assignment or debugging Matlab student
version? Other than not liking the drive assignment, I'm not clear on
what the problem is. I can tell it has something to do with Matlab
student version and possibly other programs. If that is all, have you
tried uninstalling, clearing out their software keys in the registry then
reinstalling these programs.
I've used this method to change the drive letter assignment of the drive
where I had ntldr, which for my setup wouldn't result in any problem. But
if you want to play with fire, run with scissors, and do other
potentially harmful things:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223188
-
Todd
 
- Change Disk Drive Letters

First you must remember that you CANNOT change the letter for the

boot drive if it contains the PAGEFILE.SYS (swap file) and/or HIBERFILE.SYS(hibernate file).

To move pagefile.sys use Control Panel | System | Advanced tab | Settings

under Performance | Advanced tab again | Virtual Memory and CHANGE

button. set the drive you want to move FROM to NO Paging File and click on SET.

set the drive you want to move TO and click SET.

to disable hiberfile.sys use Control Panel | Power Options Hibernate tab.

THEN REBOOT and

Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Computer Management | Disk

Management under Storage, then RIGHT click on the drive letter to change

and select the Change Letter option.

THEN following the first procedure set the PAGEFILE.SYS back to the

drive it was on originally.

XP automatically adjusts the registry for the drive letter changes.



(e-mail address removed)



Does anyone know of a way to change the drive letter of
the XP boot volume? When I installed XP my hard drive
defaulted to E:\ rather than C:\, and now some programs
(e.g. Matlab student version) evidently won't run. I saw
on the MS site that the problem is related to the
presence of a ZIP drive on install, which I have, but
does not seem to offer information on how to change the
main hard drive letter itself. I can change the other
drive letters, but not the bootable one (E:\).

Thanks in advance for any help!
 
AlBro said:
Does anyone know of a way to change the drive letter of
the XP boot volume? When I installed XP my hard drive
defaulted to E:\ rather than C:\, and now some programs
(e.g. Matlab student version) evidently won't run. I saw
on the MS site that the problem is related to the
presence of a ZIP drive on install, which I have, but
does not seem to offer information on how to change the
main hard drive letter itself. I can change the other
drive letters, but not the bootable one (E:\).
Click to expand...

The only practicable way is to start over, and reinstall, formatting the
disk in the process, and *without* the zip drive present. If you try
anything else you are liable to find very many references to the wrong
letter are hanging around the registry.

Boot the XP CD direct. Enter Setup, and after the license agreement
take New Install. When it asks you to confirm where, hit ESC; select
and delete the current partition and make a new RAW one to be formatted
at the next stage. For the present purpose I think it important that
the partition is actually deleted so it gets re-enumerated. Indeed I
would be inclined to do the delete and then reboot and do the create new
just to be sure
 
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