Startup fails due to drive letters changing? Here's how I solved it.

[prognathous]

Problem: I have three partitions on my first physical drive:
C: - Primary partition, installed with WinXP and used for emergency
cases
D: - Logical partition, contains all my data/documents
G: - Primary partition, also installed with WinXP. This is the
partition I regularly boot into.
Now, I decided to expand the size of D: by taking 30 unused gigs from
G:. For that, I used Partition Magic, but unfortunately Windows decided
to re-assign drive letters, and this made the startup process fail.
Right before the Login screen I got the following error: "There is no
disk in the drive. Please insert a disk into drive", followed by the
drive location. The Login screen itself never appeared after this
error.

Analysis: I still don't know why the resizing of partitions made
Windows re-assign those drive letter. What I do know is that it did.
This was obvious after I booted into the Recovery Console. I logged
into the non-functioning Windows XP installation on what was previously
drive G:, then typed the "map" command. This notified me that D: and G:
were now E: and M:

Solution: Here's what I did to re-assign those drive letter back to
their original state:
1. I physically disconnected the other two hard-drives and left only
the one with the three aforementioned partitions. Needless to say, I
had to turn the power off, and in this case I also had to take a jumper
out, thus switching the drive from Master to Standalone (Western
Digital drives don't function well otherwise)
2. I then booted into DOS and loaded Partition Magic. To force Windows
to reassign the last partition as G: rather than E:, I resized the
middle partition (D, then added two other logical partitions right
after it. These were to function as dummy partitions, assigned as E:
and F: - the idea was to force the last partition to get the letter G:.
3. To initialize the re-assigning of letters, I ran the command
"fdisk /mbr". This was a tips I got from this site:
http://www.murraymoffatt.com/software-problem-0007.html
This command didn't kill the MBR boot code (as I always remembered it
does). Windows booted fine, and it reassigned the drive letters. C:, D:
and G: were now reinstated, but I also had two extra partitions I had
to get rid of.
4. I ran Partition Magic again, deleted both dummy partitions and
resized D: back into its full size.

All I had to do now is reconnect the other two physical drives and get
back to work. Hopefully this would help others (keyword: "for future
googlers").

Prog.

 

[Darrell Gorter[MSFT]]

Hello,
Somehow the partition's GUID changed so the partition now has a new drive
guid.
Each partition guid is associated with a drive letter in the registry.

take a look at the following article which explains where in the registry
the information is stored and how to modify it to get the drive lettering
back.
223188 How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;223188

Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------
<From: (e-mail address removed)
<Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
<Subject: Startup fails due to drive letters changing? Here's how I solved
it.
<Date: 15 Aug 2006 17:16:59 -0700
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<Problem: I have three partitions on my first physical drive:
<C: - Primary partition, installed with WinXP and used for emergency
<cases
<D: - Logical partition, contains all my data/documents
<G: - Primary partition, also installed with WinXP. This is the
<partition I regularly boot into.
<Now, I decided to expand the size of D: by taking 30 unused gigs from
<G:. For that, I used Partition Magic, but unfortunately Windows decided
<to re-assign drive letters, and this made the startup process fail.
<Right before the Login screen I got the following error: "There is no
<disk in the drive. Please insert a disk into drive", followed by the
<drive location. The Login screen itself never appeared after this
<error.
<
<Analysis: I still don't know why the resizing of partitions made
<Windows re-assign those drive letter. What I do know is that it did.
<This was obvious after I booted into the Recovery Console. I logged
<into the non-functioning Windows XP installation on what was previously
<drive G:, then typed the "map" command. This notified me that D: and G:
<were now E: and M:
<
<Solution: Here's what I did to re-assign those drive letter back to
<their original state:
<1. I physically disconnected the other two hard-drives and left only
<the one with the three aforementioned partitions. Needless to say, I
<had to turn the power off, and in this case I also had to take a jumper
<out, thus switching the drive from Master to Standalone (Western
<Digital drives don't function well otherwise)
<2. I then booted into DOS and loaded Partition Magic. To force Windows
<to reassign the last partition as G: rather than E:, I resized the
<middle partition (D, then added two other logical partitions right
<after it. These were to function as dummy partitions, assigned as E:
<and F: - the idea was to force the last partition to get the letter G:.
<3. To initialize the re-assigning of letters, I ran the command
<"fdisk /mbr". This was a tips I got from this site:
<http://www.murraymoffatt.com/software-problem-0007.html
<This command didn't kill the MBR boot code (as I always remembered it
<does). Windows booted fine, and it reassigned the drive letters. C:, D:
<and G: were now reinstated, but I also had two extra partitions I had
<to get rid of.
<4. I ran Partition Magic again, deleted both dummy partitions and
<resized D: back into its full size.
<
<All I had to do now is reconnect the other two physical drives and get
<back to work. Hopefully this would help others (keyword: "for future
<googlers").
<
<Prog.
<
<