Messed up drive letters

[Brian]

I have upgraded my MB, cpu, and ram.
My harddrive is 40gb divided into 3 partitions:10gb, 20gb, 10gb. I formatted
the first partition (windows) with ntfs and installed win xp pro now I find
that windows is installed on G can I just change G to C or will this cause
problems?
any idea's
Brian

 

[philo]

I have upgraded my MB, cpu, and ram.
My harddrive is 40gb divided into 3 partitions:10gb, 20gb, 10gb. I formatted
the first partition (windows) with ntfs and installed win xp pro now I find
that windows is installed on G can I just change G to C or will this cause
problems?
any idea's
Brian

I did something similar and was also surprised that XP did not automatically
have to default to C:
unfortunately i don;t think there would be any way to change the drive
letter at this point...
even if you could reassign the drive letter to C: and the reference in
boot.ini

there would be hundreds (or more likely thousands) of registry
entries that would have to be changed.

there might be some utility that could make those changes...but
it looks like it would be a mess to me

 

[Bill Turner]

I have upgraded my MB, cpu, and ram.
My harddrive is 40gb divided into 3 partitions:10gb, 20gb, 10gb. I formatted
the first partition (windows) with ntfs and installed win xp pro now I find
that windows is installed on G can I just change G to C or will this cause
problems?
any idea's
Brian

_________________________________________________________

XP allows you to assign any letter you want to any drive you want.

Go to ControlPanel>ComputerManagement>Storage>DiskManagement
There you will see a graphic representation of all the drives on your
computer. Right click on any one and you'll see an option to reassign
drive letters. If the drive letter you want is already assigned to some
other drive, you will have to change that drive's letter to something
else first.

One problem with doing this is your links to various drives may no
longer be valid but they often can be fixed. Some apps are very fussy
about this and may need a complete reinstall.

 

[the gnome]

I did something similar and was also surprised that XP did not automatically
have to default to C:
unfortunately i don;t think there would be any way to change the drive
letter at this point...
even if you could reassign the drive letter to C: and the reference in
boot.ini

there would be hundreds (or more likely thousands) of registry
entries that would have to be changed.

there might be some utility that could make those changes...but
it looks like it would be a mess to me

In W2k under Control Panel there is administrative Tools, in there under
Computer management there is Disk Management that allows you to edit
(change) Drive letters.

There may be something similar in XP.

the_gnome

 

[philo]

In W2k under Control Panel there is administrative Tools, in there under
Computer management there is Disk Management that allows you to edit
(change) Drive letters.

There may be something similar in XP.

I use both XP and Win2k they both have the same drive management...
but I don't think you can change the letter of the drive your system
actually
boots to.(I'm pretty sure I tried to)

Even if you could change the drive letter...there is still the problem with
all
registry entries which would still refer to the original drive

 

[JAD]

Am I mistaken (only 1 cup o joe this morn) windows loads to the first 'active' partition.

 

[Timothy Drouillard]

Brian, do you by any chance have a Zip drive installed in your system??

first off, you can change the drive letters for any drive EXCEPT the system
drive.

Now, there is a know problem with system with a Iomega Zip drive. Sometimes
during installation, Windows mistakenly thinks the Zip drive is the first
hard drive, and installes itself on it, making it drive C:.

IF this is what may have happened, the only remedy is to temp disconnect the
Zip drive, and do a fresh install of Windows. Be sure to check which
partition/disk Windows is installing to.

Aftyer Windows is installed on your HD, THEN reconnect the Zip drive and
Windows will assign it a letter.

 

[Brian]

Thanks for your replies, it looks like I will have to reinstall xp

 

[the gnome]

I use both XP and Win2k they both have the same drive management...
but I don't think you can change the letter of the drive your system
actually
boots to.(I'm pretty sure I tried to)

Even if you could change the drive letter...there is still the problem with
all
registry entries which would still refer to the original drive

on W2k you can EDIT the drive letter to anything you want providing it
doesn't already exist and the registry resets itself and all programs work
including shortcuts.

At least it did when my boot drive showed up as D: and I edited it to C:

the_gnome

 

[philo]

on W2k you can EDIT the drive letter to anything you want providing it
doesn't already exist and the registry resets itself and all programs work
including shortcuts.

At least it did when my boot drive showed up as D: and I edited it to C:

the_gnome

I just took a look...and...
I think you've got something there...XP has the same ability within disk
management... it said : edit drive letter and paths so I'd think that would
work.

 

[John E. Carty]

I just took a look...and...
I think you've got something there...XP has the same ability within disk
management... it said : edit drive letter and paths so I'd think that would
work.

XP's Disk Management will not allow you to change the drive letter assigned
to the system or boot partition