Lone HD is H:?

[Michael Dobony]

I just installed WXP PRO on a solo SATA HD and it is labeled H: instead of
C:. C-G are my 5-in-1 card reader and CD-ROM. Some of my software is not
installing because they refuse to load the install files anywhere other
than on C:. Is there an easy way to change this (Right click-Manage does
not allow me to change the drive letter), or do I need to disconnect my
5-in-1 and reinstall. Another option is to split the HD and create a small
10gb C: drive just to allow these programs to install. What do you
suggest? Thanks.

Mike D.

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

I just installed WXP PRO on a solo SATA HD and it is labeled H: instead of
C:. C-G are my 5-in-1 card reader and CD-ROM. Some of my software is not
installing because they refuse to load the install files anywhere other
than on C:. Is there an easy way to change this (Right click-Manage does
not allow me to change the drive letter), or do I need to disconnect my
5-in-1 and reinstall. Another option is to split the HD and create a
small
10gb C: drive just to allow these programs to install. What do you
suggest? Thanks.

Mike D.

Sorry, you can't change the system drive letter. Splitting the *might* solve
the issue but it's a clumsy solution that will keep on bothering you. Best
to start afresh.

 

[DL]

With the reader disconnected

Sorry, you can't change the system drive letter. Splitting the *might*
solve the issue but it's a clumsy solution that will keep on bothering
you. Best to start afresh.

 

[David B.]

Disconnect any USB drives or card readers, format & reload.

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

With the reader disconnected

Good point!

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I just installed WXP PRO on a solo SATA HD and it is labeled H: instead of
C:. C-G are my 5-in-1 card reader and CD-ROM. Some of my software is not
installing because they refuse to load the install files anywhere other
than on C:. Is there an easy way to change this (Right click-Manage does
not allow me to change the drive letter), or do I need to disconnect my
5-in-1 and reinstall. Another option is to split the HD and create a
small
10gb C: drive just to allow these programs to install. What do you
suggest? Thanks.

Mike D.

If you've just done the install and haven't installed apps, I suggest doing
the install over again with the card reader physically disconnected.

Card readers will do this.


There is no easy or reasonable way to change the drive lettering at this
point any other way; there are too many instances of hard-coded drive
references. Better to do it properly.

HTH
-pk

 

[Jeff Johnson]

Sorry, you can't change the system drive letter.

You CAN change the system drive letter by modifying the registry.
Unfortunately, you then have to do a ton of work to the registry afterwards
because a lot of programs (including default Windows programs) put their
paths into the registry using drive letters.

So in many cases a re-install might be a better idea, but it is NOT
impossible to change the system drive letter.

 

[Mike Torello]

You CAN change the system drive letter by modifying the registry.
Unfortunately, you then have to do a ton of work to the registry afterwards
because a lot of programs (including default Windows programs) put their
paths into the registry using drive letters.

So in many cases a re-install might be a better idea, but it is NOT
impossible to change the system drive letter.

Just 100% impractical... which is functionally the same thing.

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

You CAN change the system drive letter by modifying the registry.
Unfortunately, you then have to do a ton of work to the registry
afterwards because a lot of programs (including default Windows programs)
put their paths into the registry using drive letters.

So in many cases a re-install might be a better idea, but it is NOT
impossible to change the system drive letter.

Have you ever seen someone do this successfully? Just for fun I counted all
the references to drive C: in my own registry and found nearly 20,000 of
them - and that's ignoring the ones in hex strings and the ones contained in
various disk files.

Re-installing Windows is not a "better idea", as you call it - it's the only
effective method. Everything else is a huge waste of time and will probably
fail anyway.

 

[Bill in Co.]

In the older Win9x days, with programs like "COA" (Change of Address), it
could be possible (it scanned and automatically replaced the search strings
like "C:" in the registry, but you had to be careful, because sometimes it
would replace some you may not have wanted to be replaced!, OR missed some
variations on the original drive reference). I don't think I'd attempt it
with something as complicated as WinXP unless it was a last ditch effort
before a complete reinstall, but even then, I think it would be too risky.

 

[Jeff Johnson]

Have you ever seen someone do this successfully?

Besides me? No, but then I haven't gone out of my way to ask, either.

Just for fun I counted all the references to drive C: in my own registry
and found nearly 20,000 of them - and that's ignoring the ones in hex
strings and the ones contained in various disk files.

It's not that difficult if you do it immediately after an install. In fact,
that's the ONLY time I've ever done so, specifically when I wanted Windows
to be on a drive letter that was not available to me during installation.
And with the aid of search & replace in a text editor it goes pretty quick.

Again, I've only done this when I needed to do something that couldn't be
done via a normal install.

Re-installing Windows is not a "better idea", as you call it - it's the
only effective method. Everything else is a huge waste of time and will
probably fail anyway.

"Is a bad idea" and "can't be done" are two different things.

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

Besides me? No, but then I haven't gone out of my way to ask, either.


It's not that difficult if you do it immediately after an install. In
fact, that's the ONLY time I've ever done so, specifically when I wanted
Windows to be on a drive letter that was not available to me during
installation. And with the aid of search & replace in a text editor it
goes pretty quick.

Again, I've only done this when I needed to do something that couldn't be
done via a normal install.


"Is a bad idea" and "can't be done" are two different things.

Seeing that you're so confident, I would be interested to learn how you
dealt with the following three issues:
- How did you modify some 20,000 entries, many of which are write-protected?
- How did you modify hex entries of the following form:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\
@=hex(2):43,3a,5c,57,49,4e,44,4f,57,53,5c,...
(Hint: There is a "C:\" hidden in there)
- How did you modify unicode hex entries of the following form:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Softwar
"CDRecordPath"=hex(0):43,00,3a,00,5c,00,44,00,...

(Hint: There is a "C:\" hidden in there)

If you ignored the hex entries, how could you tell the OP with confidence
that your method would give him a robust Windows installation?

 

[Michael Dobony]

Disconnect any USB drives or card readers, format & reload.

That leads to another problem. I had to activate Windows. I had trouble
with BIOS dates and was forced to activate it before opening and
discovering the problem. Is there a way to deactivate my install before
reinstalling again so I can do an internet activate? I had trouble with
the telephone activation already. Microsoft is getting TERRIBLE with their
attitude on tech support. They demanded I buy another copy of XP?????!!!!!

 

[David B.]

There is no way to inactivate an installation. You'll have to call and
explain the problem. I have never had any problems with telephone activation
in the literally hundreds of times I've used it.

 

[Michael Dobony]

There is no way to inactivate an installation. You'll have to call and
explain the problem. I have never had any problems with telephone activation
in the literally hundreds of times I've used it.

They refused to activate the legitimate disc. If I change motherboards I
need to buy a new copy of Windows for that motherboard!

 

[Onsokumaru]

They refused to activate the legitimate disc. If I change motherboards I
need to buy a new copy of Windows for that motherboard!

That is the case if you have the OEM version. It can only be installed on
one machine. No sure what happens if you change too many components.

Retail version can be installed on any machine you like. AFAIK they pretty
much accept your word you have uninstalled it from the old PC.

 

[David B.]

Call again and tell them you had to format & reload due to a virus

 

[Jeff Johnson]

Seeing that you're so confident, I would be interested to learn how you
dealt with the following three issues:
- How did you modify some 20,000 entries, many of which are
write-protected?
- How did you modify hex entries of the following form:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\
@=hex(2):43,3a,5c,57,49,4e,44,4f,57,53,5c,...
(Hint: There is a "C:\" hidden in there)
- How did you modify unicode hex entries of the following form:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Softwar
"CDRecordPath"=hex(0):43,00,3a,00,5c,00,44,00,...

(Hint: There is a "C:\" hidden in there)

If you ignored the hex entries, how could you tell the OP with confidence
that your method would give him a robust Windows installation?

Are you sure there are that many binary values containing strings after a
new install? Because I have done this on more than one occasion and I have
never had an unstable system as a result. If I burned the system to the
ground afterwards it was probably a year or so later, and I doubt it was due
to "leftover corruption" because I didn't change a few drive letters. The
important stuff in is plain strings and I changed those by exporting the
entire registry and doing a search and replace with a good text editor. It's
possible, although I won't swear to it, that I might have tried to search
for hex replacements, although if I had I wouldn't have tried the Unicode
approach.

I guess it's just the excruciatingly exacting programmer in me that can't
stand it when people say "It's not possible" when what they really mean is
"It's extremely difficult and not recommended." I don't like it when people
state things as facts that are not, in fact(!), facts. So I, uncontrollably,
respond. The Windows boot drive CAN be changed after installation. I know
because I have done it. Period. As far as robustness is concerned, well, you
can doubt it all you want. I've done it on my work machine and installed
tons of software afterward and had no more problems than I've had on
machines where I didn't change the drive assignment.

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

See below.

Seeing that you're so confident, I would be interested to learn how you
dealt with the following three issues:
- How did you modify some 20,000 entries, many of which are
write-protected?
- How did you modify hex entries of the following form:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\
@=hex(2):43,3a,5c,57,49,4e,44,4f,57,53,5c,...
(Hint: There is a "C:\" hidden in there)
- How did you modify unicode hex entries of the following form:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Softwar
"CDRecordPath"=hex(0):43,00,3a,00,5c,00,44,00,...

(Hint: There is a "C:\" hidden in there)

If you ignored the hex entries, how could you tell the OP with confidence
that your method would give him a robust Windows installation?

Are you sure there are that many binary values containing strings after a
new install?

*** Yes. Why don't you check for yourself? You're a programmer -
*** you know how to search for binary and Unicode strings!

Because I have done this on more than one occasion and I have never had an
unstable system as a result.

*** Your claim is equivalent to saying "The people who placed
*** the drive references into the binary data did so for no
*** particular reason". Maybe they did but you can only guess.

If I burned the system to the
ground afterwards it was probably a year or so later, and I doubt it was
due to "leftover corruption" because I didn't change a few drive letters.
The important stuff in is plain strings

*** Who decides what's important? You or the designer?

and I changed those by exporting the entire registry and doing a search
and replace with a good text editor. It's possible, although I won't swear
to it, that I might have tried to search for hex replacements, although if
I had I wouldn't have tried the Unicode approach.

I guess it's just the excruciatingly exacting programmer in me that can't
stand it when people say "It's not possible" when what they really mean is
"It's extremely difficult and not recommended."

*** Agreed. I could have worded it the way you suggest.

I don't like it when people state things as facts that are not, in
fact(!), facts. So I, uncontrollably, respond. The Windows boot drive CAN
be changed after installation. I know because I have done it. Period. As
far as robustness is concerned, well, you can doubt it all you want. I've
done it on my work machine and installed tons of software afterward and
had no more problems than I've had on machines where I didn't change the
drive assignment.

*** That's fine. You did, in fact, qualify your statement in your very
*** first reply. I would probably have qualified it further by saying
*** that this approach not only is very labourious but that it leaves
*** a number of binary and unicode data blocks unchanged, which
*** might or might not affect the performance of Windows.
***
*** Ultimately we appear to agree: Moving a Windows installation
*** from one drive letter to another is not a practical proposition
*** for the average PC user. The experts can look after themselves.