HD drive letters change when system changed

[Janusz Cyran]

I changed my hardware (mainboard etc.) and Windows - from Windows 98 to
Windows XP Pro. I have 2 HD - the second with 3 partitions, and 2 DVD
drives. On Windows 98 I've got the following logic configuration: first HD -
C:, second HD - D:, E:, F:, then first DVD - G:, and second DVD - H:.
When I moved to Windows XP it changed - first HD - C:, first DVD - D:,
second DVD - E:.second HD - F:, G:, H:.
I tried to change the cables (HD drives on connected to 1 IDE, DVD to
another), but with no result, the order is the same.

What is the cause of the change? Can it be set as I want?

Thanks,
JC

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Are any of the partitions for Windows XP formatted as NTFS? Windows 98
cannot see NTFS formatted drives / partitions. Windows XP can see NTFS
and FAT32 formatted drives / partitions.

In Windows Explorer right click on drive / partition and select
Properties to see how it is formatted.

Do not try changing drive / partition letters!

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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[Janusz Cyran]

Are any of the partitions for Windows XP formatted as NTFS? Windows 98

cannot see NTFS formatted drives / partitions. Windows XP can see NTFS
and FAT32 formatted drives / partitions.

First HD - NTFS. Second - 1 partition - FAT, 2 and 3 - FAT 32.

In Windows Explorer right click on drive / partition and select
Properties to see how it is formatted.

Do not try changing drive / partition letters!

I wish I could - change the position of DVD's and second HD letters. I do
not see the reason why it would be so bad.

JC

 

[Anna]

Are any of the partitions for Windows XP formatted as NTFS? Windows 98
cannot see NTFS formatted drives / partitions. Windows XP can see NTFS
and FAT32 formatted drives / partitions.

In Windows Explorer right click on drive / partition and select
Properties to see how it is formatted.

Do not try changing drive / partition letters!

Hope this helps.

Gerry
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Gerry:
I see no reason why the OP shouldn't change drive letters in this situation.
As long as he doesn't change the drive letter for C: (actually the system
will not permit this), he can use XP's Disk Managment utility to make drive
letter changes (Start > right-click My Computer > Manage > Computer
Management > Disk Management).

JC
If you don't know how to do this, access the Help files in Disk Management
and search for "drive letters". You'll find detailed instructions on
changing drive letters. Now I notice you said that you "change(d) the
cables". I assume you're referring to the IDE data cables connected to your
motherboard and drives. You are certain that all your drives are still
jumpered correctly, right? Right?
Anna

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Janusz

"I wish I could - change the position of DVD's and second HD letters."

Don't try. Whenever the issue has cropped in these newsgroups in the
past all experts have agreed that the safest way forward is to leave
things as they are.

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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[Nepatsfan]

As long as your Windows installation is installed on your C drive
then you should be able to assign whatever letters you want to
your other drives.

Go to Start -> Run and enter compmgmt.msc in the Open box. Click
OK.
Look for an entry in the left hand pane titled Disk Management.
Click on this line.
In the right hand pane, right click on the entry for your first
DVD drive and select "Change drive letters and paths".
Click on Change in the box that pops up.
In the next box that pops up click on the arrow next to "Assign
the following drive letter" and change the assigned letter
temporarily to Y.
Click OK twice.
Follow the same procedure for your second DVD drive and set the
letter to Z.
Now right click on each of the partitions of you second hard
drive and follow the same procedure to rename them D, E and F.
If you want, go back to your DVD drives and change the letters
from Y an Z to G and H.
I'd leave them set to Y and Z. That way you can change the second
HD configuration and not have to worry about redoing the drive
lettering.

Keep in mind that changing the letters assigned to your DVD
drives could have an impact on some of the programs that are
installed on your machine. Programs that expect a CD to be at one
location won't find it when they look there.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Anna

This is the kind of issue which would give me cause for concern.

Alex Nichol May 16 2004, 9:16 am show options

Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
From: Alex Nichol <[email protected]> - Find
messages by this author
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 17:16:23 +0100
Local: Sun, May 16 2004 9:16 am
Subject: Re: how do you change system partition drive letter back
to C
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- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -

This problem may occur if you have a ZIP drive that is connected to the
computer when you install Windows. This problem occurs when the
computer detects the ZIP drive as a hard disk.

To resolve this problem, use Disk Management to change the drive letter
assignments in Windows XP. For additional information about how to
change drive letter assignments in Windows XP, view the article in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base: 307844 HOW TO: Change Drive Letter
Assignments in Windows XP and NOTE: This problem does not damage your
computer.

When you go to Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 307844 HOW TO:
Change Drive Letter Assignments in Windows XP it states before you
modify drive-letter assignments, note the following: Changing the drive
letter of the system volume or the boot volume is not built-in to the
Disk Management snap-in.

Is there or isn't there a way to change The system partition drive
letter back to drive C?

No there isn't and the first article is misleading. It is technically
possible to change the letter, but you would find that the wrong one was
pervading the registry and you would have to change every one of
hundreds of entries there. Al you can do is either live with the letter
it has, or start over, deleting partitions and doing a clean install,
with the Zip drive not present

--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (e-mail address removed)8E8L.org (remove the D8 bit)

--


Regards.

Gerry

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[Janusz Cyran]

Yes, I did as you wrote. It works great. Thanks. There are no programs
installed on the second HD so I hope there should not be any problems

JC

 

[Nepatsfan]

Glad to hear that you've got the drives arranged the way you
want. As far as the programs on your computer, you may have
misunderstood my warning about possible problems
related to changing your drive letters. Where the programs end up
isn't the issue. It's where the setup was started from that may
be a
problem.

For instance, let's say you install a new piece of hardware.
You're asked to provide your Windows installation CD. You put the
CD in the same drive you used when you installed Windows.
Normally Windows automatically finds the files it needs. In your
case, because you've changed the drive letters, it won't find the
files where it expects them to be and will ask you to provide the
new location.

If this is more information than you were looking for, you can
stop reading now.
If you're curious do the following:
Run regedit.
Navigate to the following key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

Look for an entry in the right hand pane for SourcePath.
Under normal circumstances the value under the Data column will
be the letter of the drive that was used to perform the Windows
installation. In your case that would be either D: or E:. Since
you've changed the DVD drive letters, this is no longer a valid
source. It's now pointing to one of the partitions on your second
hard drive.

You can correct this by right clicking on SourcePath and choosing
Modify. Enter the letter that you assigned to one of your DVD
drives.
Note: An even better approach, if you've got the hard drive
space, is to copy the I386 folder from your installation CD to
one of the partitons on your 2nd hard drive. Put that drive
letter as the SourcePath and you won't have to go looking for a
CD any time Windows needs those files.