New Maxtor drive - partition / drive letter issues

B

- Bobb -

I've ghosted lots of drives , used OEM Drive CDs to install a disk, but this
is the first time that I had to use Windows to get a drive installed, so ...

Background: I had built Xp64 on my C drive and XP on my D partition (along
with the other stuff I had there : my backup / library) last week. I was
debating ghosting to another drive and creating a third partition to better
organize and - bingo - today CompUSA had Maxtor 250Gb SATA drives for $59
after rebate , so I bought one - to replace the primary IDE drive. Rather
than ghosting, I've now got a bigger SATA drive and can just move the data
and at the same time create a new partition.

I ran the Maxtor utility CD to create 3 partitions on the SATA drive and
formatted them. Now comes the tricky part. I had to assign a letter to each
drive in order for windows to see it / to move " the stuff that I didn't
want in the XP partition" to this new 3rd partition.

so I started with C + E on IDE drive. I added the SATA drive - 3
partitions - drive letters = J,K,L .
#1 = Drive J = XP64
#2 = Drive K= xp Pro
#3 = Drive L = Library
I moved the data from the old partitions to the new ones using the Maxtor
app - which had to be installed in Windows. I then shutdown and
disconnected IDE drive and booted XP and Xp64 on the SATA drive. Looks
good, EXCEPT that I would like drives to be C = XP64 , D = XPPro , E=
Library , rather than J,K and L.
I changed drive L to E - fine. I can't change letters of the other 2
partitions as the first = " Healthy System" and the second = "Healthy Boot".
SO, I put IDE back in and boot it. Then I could change K drive to be D ,
good.
BUT how to get that J drive to be C ?? If I boot from either disk , it
senses that the first partiton is " Healthy Active " ( when not-booted) or
"Healthy Boot" when I DO boot from it. Either way I can't mess with the
first partition to change the letter.
This Maxtor utility CD got the data moved, but no help assigning drive
letters.
My past few drives were Seagates and I ran their app under windows, pulled
out the old drive and booted the new one - no problem. I think that adding
the partition is what's messing me up here.
Do I need to delete the J drive and ghost C to partititon #1 on SATA
standalone ?

While I'm at it : I have this set as "Basic Disk". With only one drive, do I
care to make it a "Dynamic Disk" ?
I've never had a need to play with dynamic disks - is it worth doing so ?


Bobb
 
B

- Bobb -

I DID find this online - has anyone ever done this ?
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;223188

9. Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
10. Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for
"\DosDevices\C:".
11. Right-click \DosDevices\C:, and then click Rename.

Note You must use Regedit instead of Regedt32 to rename this registry
key.
12. Rename it to an unused drive letter "\DosDevices\Z:".

This frees up drive letter C.
13. Find the drive letter you want changed. Look for "\DosDevices\D:".
14. Right-click \DosDevices\D:, and then click Rename.
15. Rename it to the appropriate (new) drive letter "\DosDevices\C:".
16. Click the value for \DosDevices\Z:, click Rename, and then name it
back to "\DosDevices\D:".
Quit Regedit, and then start Regedt32

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B

- Bobb -

I did as recommmened in KB223188 and now my drive letters are as I would
like them.
I don't know if this is new or may have been this way since imaging:
If I boot XP64 ( drive C) and check my System Restore tab on My computer -
properties, it had Restore points disabled. I turned it off / on for each
drive - looks OK. BUT,
If I boot XP Pro ( D Drive ) and check System Restore tab , I get hang /
then program failure " Run dll as an app" - don't know why. May have been
that way since install - not sure as this is the first time I tried to use
it.
I have to do a few "end tasks" to close the windows. Even Drwatson fails and
I have to close that window too.

I didn't find anything matching my problem in Knowledge Base.
Can anyone tell me how to " init" the "Restore Point" area of XP Pro for my
D partition ?

Thanks.
Bobb
==========================
 
B

- Bobb -

How to have XP Pro init Restore Point as if first time run ?
I'm building a new box and had a few issues after migrating data to new
drive. Now if I boot XP64 from partition #1 - system restore tab is OK, but
if I boot XP from partition #2 the system restore tab generates errors:
"cannot find the specified path".
Thanks


Details below if it matters.

Event log shows that all was Ok yesterday . Last thing in log was boot at
11 pm last night and drive letter reassignment due to dup names after
booting with both drives in there (as I started this thread earlier today).
System was Ok and I shutdown at 12:30 am. Today when I started at 8am, I got
a System Restore Service failure.

The SR start failure shows as :
"Error 3 : the system cannot find the specified path", which shows as '
E:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs '. Well the file IS there and
since the RPC service starts with ' E:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost -k rpcss ' ,
and it is running - what's the difference ? what doesn't XP like about the
'-k netsvcs' command that it reports " cannot find the path " ?? The path to
WHAT ! What changed while I slept last night !
I checked :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\sr - seems OK.

If I go to command prompt and manually enter the command, I do NOT get a
path error, it "looks like it worked" - I get a command prompt back , but
when I check the service it is not running, so typing it in didn' t make it
work. I've checked SR reg info at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\sr etc - all the Hex
data is greek to me but I suspect one of those values is wrong. I'd just
like to have it re - init System restore area to get both OS'es to work . OR
is that the isssue - can only have one ? I disabled in XP64 and
booted/retried XP pro - still same error.
Bobb
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