Unable to change drive letters

J

joe

Win XP Pro SP3

Originally I had a 260 Gb hard drive partitioned as follows:-

40 Gb C: containing the operating system

220 Gb D: for storing data

I was forced to reformat the C: and reinstall XP Pro.

Now the Drive letters have been reversed.

In Disk management the 40Gb is shown as D: Healthy (boot) and the 220Gb is
shown as C: Healthy ( system )
When I attempt to change the drive names I get the following message:-

"Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot
volume"

Is there any way round this or am I stuck with the drive letters as is.
Everything works fine it is just confusing if somebody else uses the
computer. In Google there are several similar requests but none with a
solution.
All help and advice appreciated.

Joe
 
J

John Doue

joe said:
Win XP Pro SP3

Originally I had a 260 Gb hard drive partitioned as follows:-

40 Gb C: containing the operating system

220 Gb D: for storing data

I was forced to reformat the C: and reinstall XP Pro.

Now the Drive letters have been reversed.

In Disk management the 40Gb is shown as D: Healthy (boot) and the 220Gb is
shown as C: Healthy ( system )
When I attempt to change the drive names I get the following message:-

"Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot
volume"

Is there any way round this or am I stuck with the drive letters as is.
Everything works fine it is just confusing if somebody else uses the
computer. In Google there are several similar requests but none with a
solution.
All help and advice appreciated.

Joe
Have you looked at your boot.ini file for anything out of the ordinary?
 
J

John Doue

joe said:
Bit beyond me John. Is there somewhere I can find out how??
Boot.ini is a file located at the root of the boot drive (c normally)
which points to where Windows files are located. It usually looks like
this, at its simplest:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="Microsoft WINDOWS"

What I think is, for some reason, during your reformat (did you use a
restore disk from the manufacturer or a Windows CD?), things got screwed
up and your boot.ini file tells Windows that it is installed on what
should be the d drive. That is why it nows shows as c:

What you need to do is, after making sure system files are visible
(explorer, tools, folder options, View,show hidden files and folders),
is, open boot.ini and copy/paste its content in a post here.

Then, look at the root of the other drive (c if I understand and tell us
if there are any sys files and a boot.ini.

Then, may be someone can come up with a solution: on my own system, I
think I know what I would do, but at a distance, I am not a qualified
troubleshooter ... We will see.
 
P

Pegasus [MVP]

joe said:
Win XP Pro SP3

Originally I had a 260 Gb hard drive partitioned as follows:-

40 Gb C: containing the operating system

220 Gb D: for storing data

I was forced to reformat the C: and reinstall XP Pro.

Now the Drive letters have been reversed.

In Disk management the 40Gb is shown as D: Healthy (boot) and the 220Gb is
shown as C: Healthy ( system )
When I attempt to change the drive names I get the following message:-

"Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot
volume"

Is there any way round this or am I stuck with the drive letters as is.
Everything works fine it is just confusing if somebody else uses the
computer. In Google there are several similar requests but none with a
solution.
All help and advice appreciated.

Joe

Once Windows is installed, you cannot change the system drive letter without
making your installation unstable. Modifying the file c:\boot.ini has no
effect on your drive letters. The only way out of your dilemma is to
re-install Windows. Make sure to disconnect all USB devices before you
start.
 
J

joe

Sorry to be stupid John - I allowed system files and hidden files and
folders but there is nothg but folders in the roots of both partitions. In
D: root ( operating system ) ther are 3 folders :- Windows / Program Files /
Documents and Settings. There are no individual files. "Find" does not find
a Boot.ini file either.

If I open msconfig it shows a boot.ini identical to yours with the exeption
of -

Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"/noexecute=optin/fastdetect

But I don't find that boot.ini file anywhere!

John Doue said:
joe said:
Bit beyond me John. Is there somewhere I can find out how??
Boot.ini is a file located at the root of the boot drive (c normally)
which points to where Windows files are located. It usually looks like
this, at its simplest:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="Microsoft WINDOWS"

What I think is, for some reason, during your reformat (did you use a
restore disk from the manufacturer or a Windows CD?), things got screwed
up and your boot.ini file tells Windows that it is installed on what
should be the d drive. That is why it nows shows as c:

What you need to do is, after making sure system files are visible
(explorer, tools, folder options, View,show hidden files and folders), is,
open boot.ini and copy/paste its content in a post here.

Then, look at the root of the other drive (c if I understand and tell us
if there are any sys files and a boot.ini.

Then, may be someone can come up with a solution: on my own system, I
think I know what I would do, but at a distance, I am not a qualified
troubleshooter ... We will see.
 
J

John Doue

joe said:
Sorry to be stupid John - I allowed system files and hidden files and
folders but there is nothg but folders in the roots of both partitions. In
D: root ( operating system ) ther are 3 folders :- Windows / Program Files /
Documents and Settings. There are no individual files. "Find" does not find
a Boot.ini file either.

If I open msconfig it shows a boot.ini identical to yours with the exeption
of -

Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"/noexecute=optin/fastdetect

But I don't find that boot.ini file anywhere!

John Doue said:
joe said:
Bit beyond me John. Is there somewhere I can find out how??

joe wrote:
Win XP Pro SP3

Originally I had a 260 Gb hard drive partitioned as follows:-

40 Gb C: containing the operating system

220 Gb D: for storing data

I was forced to reformat the C: and reinstall XP Pro.

Now the Drive letters have been reversed.

In Disk management the 40Gb is shown as D: Healthy (boot) and the 220Gb
is shown as C: Healthy ( system )
When I attempt to change the drive names I get the following message:-

"Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot
volume"

Is there any way round this or am I stuck with the drive letters as is.
Everything works fine it is just confusing if somebody else uses the
computer. In Google there are several similar requests but none with a
solution.
All help and advice appreciated.

Joe
Have you looked at your boot.ini file for anything out of the ordinary?
Boot.ini is a file located at the root of the boot drive (c normally)
which points to where Windows files are located. It usually looks like
this, at its simplest:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="Microsoft WINDOWS"

What I think is, for some reason, during your reformat (did you use a
restore disk from the manufacturer or a Windows CD?), things got screwed
up and your boot.ini file tells Windows that it is installed on what
should be the d drive. That is why it nows shows as c:

What you need to do is, after making sure system files are visible
(explorer, tools, folder options, View,show hidden files and folders), is,
open boot.ini and copy/paste its content in a post here.

Then, look at the root of the other drive (c if I understand and tell us
if there are any sys files and a boot.ini.

Then, may be someone can come up with a solution: on my own system, I
think I know what I would do, but at a distance, I am not a qualified
troubleshooter ... We will see.
I am not clear about your answer. Did you look on *both* c and d roots?
 
B

BillW50

Pegasus [MVP] wrote on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:03:40 +0100:
Once Windows is installed, you cannot change the system drive letter
without making your installation unstable. Modifying the file
c:\boot.ini has no effect on your drive letters. The only way out of
your dilemma is to re-install Windows. Make sure to disconnect all USB
devices before you start.

This is normally true. Although some third party software claims to fix
this. I am not sure, but maybe Paragon is one of them. I have never
tested if they can actually change the drive letter of the boot/system
though.
 
D

dadiOH

joe said:
Win XP Pro SP3

Originally I had a 260 Gb hard drive partitioned as follows:-

40 Gb C: containing the operating system

220 Gb D: for storing data

I was forced to reformat the C: and reinstall XP Pro.

Now the Drive letters have been reversed.

In Disk management the 40Gb is shown as D: Healthy (boot) and the
220Gb is shown as C: Healthy ( system )
When I attempt to change the drive names I get the following message:-

"Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot
volume"

Is there any way round this or am I stuck with the drive letters as
is. Everything works fine it is just confusing if somebody else uses
the computer.

Pegasus gave you a solution to your "problem" but you really don't have
one. Since everything works fine, what difference does it make if you boot
from D: rather than C:?

If you can't get your head around having an OS on other than C:, give the
drives labels by renaming them. If you wish, you can use TweakUI to
position drive letters after the label. It also has an option to *not* show
them, doesn't work for me..

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
 
J

John Doue

Pegasus said:
Once Windows is installed, you cannot change the system drive letter
without making your installation unstable. Modifying the file
c:\boot.ini has no effect on your drive letters. The only way out of
your dilemma is to re-install Windows. Make sure to disconnect all USB
devices before you start.
Your post and mine just crossed. I personally never ran into that
situation. It would be interesting to know how the OP reinstalled
Windows since Restore disks from manufacturers often create partition
with a specific function that might cause this?

Then, if it were my machine, I would try to merge (Acronis Disk
Director) the two partitions and see what happens. The resulting
partition would obviously become C:. It might not boot, but I would then
use a special tool as system commander boot fixer which saved my day
more than once. The recovery console might also solve the problem but I
have no experience using.

A note of caution: although I have experience with Paragon and the 8.5
works ok for me, I caution against using the latest version (10.0) I
believe. At least on my dual boot system, it created a nasty situation
when I tried to copy the active partition. A search on the Internet
confirmed I was not the only one to have problem. 8.5 is safe to use
with the usual caveats for such products.

Once thing is sure: I would want to know what caused this installation
to be messed up this bad!

Nice to see you here Bill(50)!
 
P

Pegasus [MVP]

BillW50 said:
Pegasus [MVP] wrote on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:03:40 +0100:


This is normally true. Although some third party software claims to fix
this. I am not sure, but maybe Paragon is one of them. I have never tested
if they can actually change the drive letter of the boot/system though.

To Bill:
The registry is full of references to the System drive, some of them hiding
in binary keys. I have never heard of anyone changing the system drive
letter (which is easy) and getting a stable installation. I realise that you
have not tested this yourself but perhaps you could post some authoritative
links of people who have done it.

To Joe:
If you play around with the file c:\boot.ini then you risk making your
machine unbootable. Best to have some alternative boot medium handy, e.g. a
Bart PE boot CD or a Linux boot CD. Alternatively you may have to connect
your 260 GByte disk to some other Windows PC in order to restore boot.ini to
its original state.
 
J

joe

Yes both of them.

John Doue said:
joe said:
Sorry to be stupid John - I allowed system files and hidden files and
folders but there is nothg but folders in the roots of both partitions.
In D: root ( operating system ) ther are 3 folders :- Windows / Program
Files / Documents and Settings. There are no individual files. "Find"
does not find a Boot.ini file either.

If I open msconfig it shows a boot.ini identical to yours with the
exeption of -

Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"/noexecute=optin/fastdetect

But I don't find that boot.ini file anywhere!

John Doue said:
joe wrote:
Bit beyond me John. Is there somewhere I can find out how??

joe wrote:
Win XP Pro SP3

Originally I had a 260 Gb hard drive partitioned as follows:-

40 Gb C: containing the operating system

220 Gb D: for storing data

I was forced to reformat the C: and reinstall XP Pro.

Now the Drive letters have been reversed.

In Disk management the 40Gb is shown as D: Healthy (boot) and the
220Gb is shown as C: Healthy ( system )
When I attempt to change the drive names I get the following
message:-

"Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot
volume"

Is there any way round this or am I stuck with the drive letters as
is. Everything works fine it is just confusing if somebody else uses
the computer. In Google there are several similar requests but none
with a solution.
All help and advice appreciated.

Joe
Have you looked at your boot.ini file for anything out of the
ordinary?

--
John Doue

Boot.ini is a file located at the root of the boot drive (c normally)
which points to where Windows files are located. It usually looks like
this, at its simplest:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="Microsoft WINDOWS"

What I think is, for some reason, during your reformat (did you use a
restore disk from the manufacturer or a Windows CD?), things got screwed
up and your boot.ini file tells Windows that it is installed on what
should be the d drive. That is why it nows shows as c:

What you need to do is, after making sure system files are visible
(explorer, tools, folder options, View,show hidden files and folders),
is, open boot.ini and copy/paste its content in a post here.

Then, look at the root of the other drive (c if I understand and tell us
if there are any sys files and a boot.ini.

Then, may be someone can come up with a solution: on my own system, I
think I know what I would do, but at a distance, I am not a qualified
troubleshooter ... We will see.
I am not clear about your answer. Did you look on *both* c and d roots?
 
J

John Doue

Pegasus said:
To Bill:
The registry is full of references to the System drive, some of them
hiding in binary keys. I have never heard of anyone changing the system
drive letter (which is easy) and getting a stable installation. I
realise that you have not tested this yourself but perhaps you could
post some authoritative links of people who have done it.

To Joe:
If you play around with the file c:\boot.ini then you risk making your
machine unbootable. Best to have some alternative boot medium handy,
e.g. a Bart PE boot CD or a Linux boot CD. Alternatively you may have to
connect your 260 GByte disk to some other Windows PC in order to restore
boot.ini to its original state.
Thanks for this info. What about:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188
In which case is this procedure applicable?

I guess the bottom line is to understand why the OP problem occurred,
and then to reinstall Windows.
 
J

joe

I used a win xp pro disk to reinstall not a manufacturers disk.
I selected complete format then reinstall.
Everything went perfectly, no errors.
Just ended up with this drive name issue.
Sounds like I should just leave well enough alone ?
 
P

Pegasus [MVP]

John Doue said:
Thanks for this info. What about:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188
In which case is this procedure applicable?

I guess the bottom line is to understand why the OP problem occurred, and
then to reinstall Windows.

The link you refer to describes the opposite process: How to restore a
system drive letter that got changed from its original value by some means.
The OP's system drive was not changed - it was drive D: right after he
installed Windows. If he uses kb223188 then he will get an unstable system.
 
J

John Doue

joe said:
I used a win xp pro disk to reinstall not a manufacturers disk.
I selected complete format then reinstall.
Everything went perfectly, no errors.
Just ended up with this drive name issue.
Sounds like I should just leave well enough alone ?
snip
Of course, in this case, this is an option.

Personally, I would not choose it but I am kind of finicky. Do you own a
partition manager tool, like Acronis Disk Director?

Before attempting to reinstall, I think it is important to understand
what went wrong and why. Taking a hard look at your disk with such a
program might reveal something you cannot see with Windows tools only.
Like a manufacter's hidden partition.

Enlisting the help of a knowledgeable person if, as I suspect, you are
uneasy about looking "under the hood" might be good idea. After all,
reinstalling Windows is a matter of about 2 hours at most, then
downloading the patches. But once the original install is correct,
everything should be a piece of cake.
 
J

John Doue

Pegasus said:
The link you refer to describes the opposite process: How to restore a
system drive letter that got changed from its original value by some
means. The OP's system drive was not changed - it was drive D: right
after he installed Windows. If he uses kb223188 then he will get an
unstable system.
Thanks, I suspected as much, but now I know!
 
B

BillW50

John Doue wrote on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:21:47 +0200:
Of course, in this case, this is an option.

Personally, I would not choose it but I am kind of finicky. Do you own a
partition manager tool, like Acronis Disk Director?

Before attempting to reinstall, I think it is important to understand
what went wrong and why. Taking a hard look at your disk with such a
program might reveal something you cannot see with Windows tools only.
Like a manufacter's hidden partition.

Enlisting the help of a knowledgeable person if, as I suspect, you are
uneasy about looking "under the hood" might be good idea. After all,
reinstalling Windows is a matter of about 2 hours at most, then
downloading the patches. But once the original install is correct,
everything should be a piece of cake.

Just an educated guess on my part. But it sounds like the other
partition is set as active would be my first guess.
 
B

BillW50

Pegasus [MVP] wrote on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:56:24 +0100:
To Bill:
The registry is full of references to the System drive, some of them
hiding in binary keys. I have never heard of anyone changing the system
drive letter (which is easy) and getting a stable installation. I
realise that you have not tested this yourself but perhaps you could
post some authoritative links of people who have done it.

Yes I know one shouldn't try to change whatever drive letter of the
boot/system partition as well as you do. And I too worry about any
attempts (without a total clean install) to do so.

I do know BCDEdit (works with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7)
allows you to change the boot/system drive letter. Although I believe
this is supposed to fix it after something else changed it to break it.

Also Microsoft seems to have the same fix:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188

This IT guy (I really don't have a lot of respect for most IT guys
myself), seems to suggest that the Microsoft method will fix it for good.
http://www.slickit.ca/2009/06/change-drive-letter-of-system-boot.html

I have Paragon Partition Manager 9.5 here and it allows changing the
drive letter for a given partition. Reading the manual doesn't say
anything about if it is a boot/system partition at all.

I have many systems that I use alone with tons of TB of free space with
spare hard drives that I am willing to experiment with. And I have no
problem with experimenting with these methods to see if they actually
work. I am still looking for those that claims their method actually
works (besides this one IT guy).
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top