Mixed-up driveletters (new setup)

[Darth Elvis]

Hi,

I'm doing a new install of XP Pro on my existing disk which has data I want
to keep. For some kind of reason another partition than the original one is
now called C:. During XP setup I can choose where I want to install and it
looks like this:

D: Partition1 (SYSTEM) [NTFS] 7170 MB ( 7131 MB free)
E: Partition2 (PROGRAMS) [NTFS] 19454 MB ( 18318 MB free)
C: Partition3 (DATA1) [NTFS] 45308 MB ( 8580 MB free)
F: Partition4 (DATA2) [NTFS] 45308 MB ( 18826 MB free)

The C: en F: partitions (labeled "DATA1" and "DATA2") contain data I wish to
preserve. I want the partition which is now D: to be C: so that the new
configuration would be:

C: Partition1 (SYSTEM) [NTFS] 7170 MB ( 7131 MB free)
D: Partition2 (PROGRAMS) [NTFS] 19454 MB ( 18318 MB free)
E: Partition3 (DATA1) [NTFS] 45308 MB ( 8580 MB free)
F: Partition4 (DATA2) [NTFS] 45308 MB ( 18826 MB free)

How can I make this change? Remember I'm in XP setup so Disk Management is
no option. What makes Windows think that the third partition should be named
C:?

Thank you,
Darth Elvis

 

[Darth Elvis]

Nevermind, did some googling and found out myself.

For those interested, I had to change the active partition using a win9x
bootdisk and fdisk, see Q315261

Regards,
Darth Elvis

 

[Alex Nichol]

How can I make this change? Remember I'm in XP setup so Disk Management is
no option. What makes Windows think that the third partition should be named
C:?

It is not practical to try to re-letter the drive where the System (and
Program Files) reside, except for the case where they have been changed
so that things do not *now* work and you need to restore things. If you
try it will cause trouble - the letters are just too pervasive in the
registry.

If it is a case where a letter *was* C and had changed to D, then run
regedit.exe, open to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Mounted Devices, and in the right pane, very
carefully rename the line
DosDevices\D: as DosDevices\C: You may need to rename the one that is
at present \C: to some unused letter first. Then reboot