Vista installation drive letters

[LarryW]

I have a system with a primary partition C: and an extended partition with
drives D: and E:. I have XP installed on C:. I just did a clean Vista
install to my E: drive. I've done multi-boot installs of NT and XP before
and when I did, the installation to drive E: left it as drive E: which is
what I want. After installing and booting Vista, the last partition (what
was E is now C:, my data/programs partition which was D: (and which I want
to stay as D is now E: and the XP boot partition which was C: is now D:. I
could live with Vista being on C: but I really want my data/programs on D:.
When I tried to change the D: (primary partition) letter to something else
(so I could then change E: to D, I get a message that I can't change that
drive because it's a 'system' disk. How do I either do an install such that
Vista stays booting from E: or change so that my D: drive stays as D:?
Thanks!

 

[Rock]

I have a system with a primary partition C: and an extended partition with
drives D: and E:. I have XP installed on C:. I just did a clean Vista
install to my E: drive. I've done multi-boot installs of NT and XP before
and when I did, the installation to drive E: left it as drive E: which is
what I want. After installing and booting Vista, the last partition (what
was E is now C:, my data/programs partition which was D: (and which I
want
to stay as D is now E: and the XP boot partition which was C: is now D:.
I
could live with Vista being on C: but I really want my data/programs on
D:.
When I tried to change the D: (primary partition) letter to something else
(so I could then change E: to D, I get a message that I can't change
that
drive because it's a 'system' disk. How do I either do an install such
that
Vista stays booting from E: or change so that my D: drive stays as D:?

If the installation is done by booting the DVD then Vista will label the
volume it's installed to as C. If it's started from the XP desktop it will
take the label already assigned by XP.

As you have discovered you cannot change the drive letter for either the
volume with the boot files or with the system files.

 

[Chad Harris]

Larry W--

It's as Rock says and you have to do it this way:

If you run Vista setup from XP's desktop, then you'll retain the driver
letters you have. If you do a restart and run the Vista DVD's setup, you're
going to have them dictated by your bios and they will change. It's that
simple and I don't think any of us have a work around for that.

To me, it matters not a whit. You have to be a little bit nimble when
you're doing things like shortcutting to XP folders from the Vista desktop
on a dual boot/multiboot, remembering that drive letters have changed, and
that you have to put :\Documents and Settings\Larry W's profile in the file
path of the XP folder you want to hit.

Once in a while if you open a notepad on one drive you'll have to modify its
file path to be able to close it and save its changes

I keep an XP shortcut on my Vista desktop that goes D (it used to be C:\
where XP is so now it's D because MSFT has false information in setup and
won't let some machines setup Vista from an XP desktop--vintage about 3 or 4
builds counting builds that were released to TAP but not anywhere else
before RTM). So to shortcut from my Vista desktop to XP I simply make the
shortcut by typing into an IE address bar or you can put a combo address bar
and run box in the task bar by right clickiing it>toolbars>address>unlock
taskbar:

D: (was C) \Documents and Settings\Chad's Profile\Desktop

Then you drag the folder icon fromthe name bar of the window to your Vista
desktop and you have a shortcut.

I thought you could change the drive letterwhen I first started dual or
multibooting, and I think the way it works is that you could if you didn't
have a dual or multiboot but just had divided your hard drive up into drives
or partitions. I know that as Rock says, I have never been able to do it on
a dual boot by right clickiing the drive letter to change at Disk Managment.

I am a big fan of a dual boot because you always have another OS to fall
back on on the fly (but of course we should all back up). When you mention
dual boot on these groups, you're going to get reminded that unless you hide
the Vista boot from XP when you go to the XP boot or other legacy OS boot
and perhaps a Linux boot,(I don't know enough about using it) or you will
lose system restore points created on the Vista boot when you go onto the XP
boot but not when you shortcut and you will lose the Vista backup you made
as well. Bit Locker encryptionis one way to do this, and there are several
others.

Good luck,

CH

 

[Adam Albright]

Larry W--

It's as Rock says and you have to do it this way:

Geez, do you net nanny's even bother to read what people ask?

It seems the primary question is how can I restore the drive letter my
data and programs are on. It seems the original poster is quite happy
with the OS being installed as is.

In Vista, you can use the Disk Management console to manage the drives
on your computer. Anything but the letters A & B which are reserved
for floppy drives are available. So the options are anything from C
through Z. You can skip letters, even use the bottom of the alphabet
if that makes you happy.

Click Start, then right click on computer, then pick manage and
finally click on Disk Management. You will see a list of the drives
currently seen by Windows. If you have some external drives turned
off, they don't show until they are on and you refresh.

To change a drive letter assignment OTHER than your boot drive simply
right click on it from here and finally drive letter and path. DO NOT
change the drive letter (typically C) unless you really know what
you're doing. That too can be done, but not recommended since doing so
can really mess you up depending on how your system is setup.

Now if you want to get more fancy and you have a dual boot setup and
get confused with XP and Vista swapping drive letters depending on
which OS is active you CAN defeat that behavior.

Read this article:

http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-12558-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=29596&messageID=550708&start=-8

 

[Darrell Gorter[MSFT]]

Hello Adam,
Actually I agree with what Chad and Rock's answers.
The only thing I have to add to them is that there are unattended options
that can be set when booting to the DVD that can assign drivers as well.


Using Computer Management\Disk Managment to change the drive letters is
only an option for drive letters other than the system and boot drives.
Both System drives and boot drives are not allowed drive letter changes in
Disk Management.

In Larry's case, his system drive is D and his boot drive is C
Since Larry cannot change his D drive, because is contains the boot files,
that option is not available in disk managment.
So he want so label his E drive as D, which also isn't an option system
that would first require a change the D which isn't allowed as per the
above statement.

In disk managment as in other places in Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows
Server 2003, Windows 2000, and NT Based Windows Versions:
System Drive is defined as the drive that contains the boot files.
Boot Drive is defined as the drive that contains the \Windows folder.


Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------
|>From: Adam Albright <[email protected]>
|>Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup
|>Subject: Re: Vista installation drive letters
|>Message-ID: <[email protected]>
|>References: <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
|>X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American)
|>MIME-Version: 1.0
|>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
|>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
|>Lines: 39
|>X-Complaints-To: (e-mail address removed)
|>X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
|>X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint
properly.
|>NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 20:26:20 EST
|>Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:26:03 -0600
|>Path:
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|>Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup:8735
|>X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup
|>
|>On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:49:38 -0500, "Chad Harris"
|><vistaneedsmuchowork.net> wrote:
|>
|>>Larry W--
|>>
|>>It's as Rock says and you have to do it this way:
|>
|>Geez, do you net nanny's even bother to read what people ask?
|>
|>It seems the primary question is how can I restore the drive letter my
|>data and programs are on. It seems the original poster is quite happy
|>with the OS being installed as is.
|>
|>In Vista, you can use the Disk Management console to manage the drives
|>on your computer. Anything but the letters A & B which are reserved
|>for floppy drives are available. So the options are anything from C
|>through Z. You can skip letters, even use the bottom of the alphabet
|>if that makes you happy.
|>
|>Click Start, then right click on computer, then pick manage and
|>finally click on Disk Management. You will see a list of the drives
|>currently seen by Windows. If you have some external drives turned
|>off, they don't show until they are on and you refresh.
|>
|>To change a drive letter assignment OTHER than your boot drive simply
|>right click on it from here and finally drive letter and path. DO NOT
|>change the drive letter (typically C) unless you really know what
|>you're doing. That too can be done, but not recommended since doing so
|>can really mess you up depending on how your system is setup.
|>
|>Now if you want to get more fancy and you have a dual boot setup and
|>get confused with XP and Vista swapping drive letters depending on
|>which OS is active you CAN defeat that behavior.
|>
|>Read this article:
|>
|>http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-12558-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=29596&messa
geID=550708&start=-8
|>
|>
|>
|>

 

[Guest]

Yes, I agree.
That's the behvior when Vista is installed by booting and when installed
from XP.
So i think while doing this itself, better provide Vol label to drives , so
that it lessens confusion if any.
Also I think its better to install Vista from Booting , so thta it shows as
its on C: when in Vista . And While in XP, XP will be shown in C:.
This behavior will be useful when, as some of the installers are hardcoded
to install in C:. So when you are in Vista , it'll be shown as C:, so any
hard coded installer will not have any problem installing in the same drive.
Else if you have installed Vista from XP, it'll be in E: and hardcoded
installer will be installing Vita rel. files in C: (XP). I hope i am clear.

One more thing to remember, this dual booting tends to wipe out each others
restore point. So use restore point carefully, and whenever required that is
to say when you are installing something, turn it on manually.

Also to manage BCD , there's Vista builtin editor BCDedit, but can use third
party editors as EasyBCD or Vista BootPro (both are GUI based) which are easy
to use, if one has difficulty using BCDEdit.

Hello Adam,
Actually I agree with what Chad and Rock's answers.
The only thing I have to add to them is that there are unattended options
that can be set when booting to the DVD that can assign drivers as well.


Using Computer Management\Disk Managment to change the drive letters is
only an option for drive letters other than the system and boot drives.
Both System drives and boot drives are not allowed drive letter changes in
Disk Management.

In Larry's case, his system drive is D and his boot drive is C
Since Larry cannot change his D drive, because is contains the boot files,
that option is not available in disk managment.
So he want so label his E drive as D, which also isn't an option system
that would first require a change the D which isn't allowed as per the
above statement.

In disk managment as in other places in Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows
Server 2003, Windows 2000, and NT Based Windows Versions:
System Drive is defined as the drive that contains the boot files.
Boot Drive is defined as the drive that contains the \Windows folder.


Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------
|>From: Adam Albright <[email protected]>
|>Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup
|>Subject: Re: Vista installation drive letters
|>Message-ID: <[email protected]>
|>References: <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
|>X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American)
|>MIME-Version: 1.0
|>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
|>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
|>Lines: 39
|>X-Complaints-To: (e-mail address removed)
|>X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
|>X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint
properly.
|>NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 20:26:20 EST
|>Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:26:03 -0600
|>Path:
TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP01.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTFEEDS01.phx.gbl!news-out.
cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newscon06.news.prodigy.net!prodigy.net!uns-out.us
enetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!pc02.usenetserver.com!fe185.usenetserve
r.com.POSTED!997d583c!not-for-mail
|>Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup:8735
|>X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup
|>
|>On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:49:38 -0500, "Chad Harris"
|><vistaneedsmuchowork.net> wrote:
|>
|>>Larry W--
|>>
|>>It's as Rock says and you have to do it this way:
|>
|>Geez, do you net nanny's even bother to read what people ask?
|>
|>It seems the primary question is how can I restore the drive letter my
|>data and programs are on. It seems the original poster is quite happy
|>with the OS being installed as is.
|>
|>In Vista, you can use the Disk Management console to manage the drives
|>on your computer. Anything but the letters A & B which are reserved
|>for floppy drives are available. So the options are anything from C
|>through Z. You can skip letters, even use the bottom of the alphabet
|>if that makes you happy.
|>
|>Click Start, then right click on computer, then pick manage and
|>finally click on Disk Management. You will see a list of the drives
|>currently seen by Windows. If you have some external drives turned
|>off, they don't show until they are on and you refresh.
|>
|>To change a drive letter assignment OTHER than your boot drive simply
|>right click on it from here and finally drive letter and path. DO NOT
|>change the drive letter (typically C) unless you really know what
|>you're doing. That too can be done, but not recommended since doing so
|>can really mess you up depending on how your system is setup.
|>
|>Now if you want to get more fancy and you have a dual boot setup and
|>get confused with XP and Vista swapping drive letters depending on
|>which OS is active you CAN defeat that behavior.
|>
|>Read this article:
|>
|>http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-12558-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=29596&messa
geID=550708&start=-8
|>
|>
|>
|>

 

[Guest]

One more thing , if you install Vista from Booting, so that each OS (XP and
Vista)will be shown in C: when they are running, the installed softwares
including hardcoded installers will be in their respective partitions, So
it'll easy for removing any OS, if one doesn't want it later and all s/w
installed with them will also continue working.

Yes, I agree.
That's the behvior when Vista is installed by booting and when installed
from XP.
So i think while doing this itself, better provide Vol label to drives , so
that it lessens confusion if any.
Also I think its better to install Vista from Booting , so thta it shows as
its on C: when in Vista . And While in XP, XP will be shown in C:.
This behavior will be useful when, as some of the installers are hardcoded
to install in C:. So when you are in Vista , it'll be shown as C:, so any
hard coded installer will not have any problem installing in the same drive.
Else if you have installed Vista from XP, it'll be in E: and hardcoded
installer will be installing Vita rel. files in C: (XP). I hope i am clear.

One more thing to remember, this dual booting tends to wipe out each others
restore point. So use restore point carefully, and whenever required that is
to say when you are installing something, turn it on manually.

Also to manage BCD , there's Vista builtin editor BCDedit, but can use third
party editors as EasyBCD or Vista BootPro (both are GUI based) which are easy
to use, if one has difficulty using BCDEdit.

Hello Adam,
Actually I agree with what Chad and Rock's answers.
The only thing I have to add to them is that there are unattended options
that can be set when booting to the DVD that can assign drivers as well.


Using Computer Management\Disk Managment to change the drive letters is
only an option for drive letters other than the system and boot drives.
Both System drives and boot drives are not allowed drive letter changes in
Disk Management.

In Larry's case, his system drive is D and his boot drive is C
Since Larry cannot change his D drive, because is contains the boot files,
that option is not available in disk managment.
So he want so label his E drive as D, which also isn't an option system
that would first require a change the D which isn't allowed as per the
above statement.

In disk managment as in other places in Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows
Server 2003, Windows 2000, and NT Based Windows Versions:
System Drive is defined as the drive that contains the boot files.
Boot Drive is defined as the drive that contains the \Windows folder.


Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------
|>From: Adam Albright <[email protected]>
|>Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup
|>Subject: Re: Vista installation drive letters
|>Message-ID: <[email protected]>
|>References: <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
|>X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American)
|>MIME-Version: 1.0
|>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
|>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
|>Lines: 39
|>X-Complaints-To: (e-mail address removed)
|>X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
|>X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint
properly.
|>NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 20:26:20 EST
|>Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:26:03 -0600
|>Path:
TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP01.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTFEEDS01.phx.gbl!news-out.
cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newscon06.news.prodigy.net!prodigy.net!uns-out.us
enetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!pc02.usenetserver.com!fe185.usenetserve
r.com.POSTED!997d583c!not-for-mail
|>Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup:8735
|>X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup
|>
|>On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:49:38 -0500, "Chad Harris"
|><vistaneedsmuchowork.net> wrote:
|>
|>>Larry W--
|>>
|>>It's as Rock says and you have to do it this way:
|>
|>Geez, do you net nanny's even bother to read what people ask?
|>
|>It seems the primary question is how can I restore the drive letter my
|>data and programs are on. It seems the original poster is quite happy
|>with the OS being installed as is.
|>
|>In Vista, you can use the Disk Management console to manage the drives
|>on your computer. Anything but the letters A & B which are reserved
|>for floppy drives are available. So the options are anything from C
|>through Z. You can skip letters, even use the bottom of the alphabet
|>if that makes you happy.
|>
|>Click Start, then right click on computer, then pick manage and
|>finally click on Disk Management. You will see a list of the drives
|>currently seen by Windows. If you have some external drives turned
|>off, they don't show until they are on and you refresh.
|>
|>To change a drive letter assignment OTHER than your boot drive simply
|>right click on it from here and finally drive letter and path. DO NOT
|>change the drive letter (typically C) unless you really know what
|>you're doing. That too can be done, but not recommended since doing so
|>can really mess you up depending on how your system is setup.
|>
|>Now if you want to get more fancy and you have a dual boot setup and
|>get confused with XP and Vista swapping drive letters depending on
|>which OS is active you CAN defeat that behavior.
|>
|>Read this article:
|>
|>http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-12558-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=29596&messa
geID=550708&start=-8
|>
|>
|>
|>

 

[Rock]

One more thing to remember, this dual booting tends to wipe out each
others
restore point. So use restore point carefully, and whenever required that
is
to say when you are installing something, turn it on manually.

To be precise here, when dual booting XP and Vista, when booting into XP,
all the Vista restore points, file shadow copies and backups on partitions
that XP can see, are deleted by XP's Volsnap.sys. On the other hand XP
restore points are not deleted when Vista is booted.

This can be avoided by hiding the Vista partition from XP through the use of
Bitlocker, or a 3rd party boot manager.

 

[LarryW]

In Larry's case, his system drive is D and his boot drive is C
Since Larry cannot change his D drive, because is contains the boot files,
that option is not available in disk managment.
So he want so label his E drive as D, which also isn't an option system
that would first require a change the D which isn't allowed as per the
above statement.

That's correct. I ended up wiping out the install and doing it when booted
into XP and now the drive letters are the same as they were before which is
just what I wanted.

 

[Fedwayguy]

That's correct. I ended up wiping out the install and doing it when
booted
into XP and now the drive letters are the same as they were before which
is
just what I wanted.

There's actually a simpler way of doing what you want to do without going in
and tweaking anything.

Just swap out the drives that hold XP and Vista. Just unplug the power
supply and hit F8 or whatever the key is for your motherboard to select a
boot drive. That's it. The drive that you have plugged in and ready to go
will boot. Just be sure the other drive has no power to it. That's the way
I'm doing it now, although I've run into a small glitch I need to tweak.

My motherboard allows me to select a boot device. I have 5 hard disks
installed and two of those have Vista or XP Pro installed in a single
partition. Just be sure your boot drive is a single partition under Vista
due to the way Vista looks at the boot drive. I wish Microsoft would quit
trying to be funny and just keep the old way of doing partitions and all.
With the upgrade from Windows 98 to XP, it was plain and simple. Now with
Vista and all of it's funny business to keep you safe and secure (I don't
need to be safe and secure), they made it a lot harder to do things now.
Sure some of the things are great, but they should have put in more options
to let you decide how you want your system to run.