how to change drive letters when XP is not booting?

[gabrtome1]

Hi folks,

I need a programm able to start from CD which can:

format only the C: drive
then make drive D: to drive C and boot it.

If I don't made myself clear, please let me know.

Many thanks.
Gabriel

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hi folks,

I need a programm able to start from CD which can:

format only the C: drive
then make drive D: to drive C and boot it.

If I don't made myself clear, please let me know.

Many thanks.
Gabriel

Is XP currently installed on D:? If so, this plan (re-assigning D as C)
won't work as the drive references in the registry will almost all be wrong,
and there is no practical way to change this.

If XP isn't on D, simply physically remove or detach the C drive, put D in
its place as the primary drive (correct position on cable, jumpers set
properly) and when you install XP that drive will be C. Leave the current
C detached during install so that there is no question of conflicts.

HTH
-pk

 

[Guest]

It's not clear.
Are C: and D: seperate hardware disk drives, or partitions on a single drive?
What is on C: now, and D:. (Operating Systems?)
What is your purpose for the change; what are you hoping to accomplish or
correct?
hth

 

[gabrtome1]

Thanks for answering, my problem is that somehow all my Data has now
moved to partition D:

The actual C: drive now is a removable SD Card. I need to change the
drive letter, my images of course do not fit on a SD card.

I have backup images of my partitions, I just need to assign a new
drive letter to the removable drive, then assign D to C and the PC
should boot.

If not, I can always use my backup image, but therefore I need a C
drive.

Is there a way to do this?

Thanks in advance.
Gabriel

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Thanks for answering, my problem is that somehow all my Data has now
moved to partition D:

The actual C: drive now is a removable SD Card. I need to change the
drive letter, my images of course do not fit on a SD card.

I have backup images of my partitions, I just need to assign a new
drive letter to the removable drive, then assign D to C and the PC
should boot.

If not, I can always use my backup image, but therefore I need a C
drive.

Is there a way to do this?

Thanks in advance.
Gabriel

This kind of problem was previously seen with Zip drives and Windows 2000,
which if connected during initial setup would be assigned "C".

To get around it, you have to remove or disconnect the SD card and possibly
its reader during setup. You may also be able to reassign this from the
recovery console - fixmbr and fixboot will probably help when you get
another hard disk installed . But you can't change the letter of the
active boot drive while the system is running.

Again, if XP is currently on D, there is *no practical way* to change its
drive letter to C other than a clean reinstall. You cannot reasonably find
or change all of the existing drive references in the registry and various
configuration files. Keep in mind you will have to do this for every
installed user, and there are likely thousands of references for each user.
It would be faster and more reliable to wipe the system and reinstall clean
than to even attempt changing the drive letters.

So, changing the drive letter of the current D drive to C isn't going to
help you at all, but instead compound your system problems.

Unfortunately what appears to be a shortcut isn't.

HTH
-pk

 

[gabrtome1]

Thank you very much for your time and your help.

I unplugged all drives except one HDD, formattet it and installed a
backup image over it, it works!

Thanks again.