Changing The Letter Of Boot Drive Or Boot Partition

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Hi. My current OS (XP) boots on C partition. I want to rename this partition
as W (W from Windows) (obviously, I want my XP still boots on this new W
partition). What are the steps? thanks.
 
Tino said:
Hi. My current OS (XP) boots on C partition. I want to rename this
partition as W (W from Windows) (obviously, I want my XP still boots
on this new W partition). What are the steps? thanks.
Click to expand...


Answered in another newsgroup. Please do not send the same message
separately to more than one newsgroup (called multiposting). Doing so just
fragments the thread, so someone who answers in one newsgroup doesn't get to
see answers from others in another newsgroup. And for those who read all the
newsgroups the message is multiposted to, they see the message multiple
times instead of once (they would see it only once if you correctly
crossposted instead). This wastes everyone's time, and gets you poorer help
than you should get.

If you must send the same message to more than one newsgroup, please do so
by crossposting (but only to a *few* related newsgroups).

Please see "What is the accepted way to share a message across multiple
newsgroups?" at http://smjg.port5.com/faqs/usenet/xpost.html
 
multi-posted

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

| Hi. My current OS (XP) boots on C partition. I want to rename this
partition
| as W (W from Windows) (obviously, I want my XP still boots on this new W
| partition). What are the steps? thanks.
 
By default, the Boot.ini files for Windows MUST appear on Drive/Partition C.
Other parts of Windows may be used from other internal Drive/Partition
letters, but the boot files MUST BE ON C. Frankly I would advise you to
leave your system as it is presently since you do not give any reason for
your proposal.
Gene K
 
Gene said:
By default, the Boot.ini files for Windows MUST appear on
Drive/Partition C. Other parts of Windows may be used from other
internal Drive/Partition letters, but the boot files MUST BE ON C.
Click to expand...


As I just pointed out in another thread, this is *not* correct. Boot.ini
does not have to be on C: and my system here is proof of that.
 
If what you say is correct, then I assume that the originator of this thread
can just change his present Drive/Partition C to W (or any other available
Drive Letter) with no resultant harm to his operating system.
Gene K
 
Gene said:
By default, the Boot.ini files for Windows MUST appear on
Drive/Partition C. Other parts of Windows may be used from other
internal Drive/Partition letters, but the boot files MUST BE ON C.
Click to expand...


As I just pointed out in another thread, this is *not* correct.
Boot.ini does not have to be on C: and my system here is proof of
that.
Click to expand...

Gene said:
If what you say is correct, then I assume that the originator of
this thread can just change his present Drive/Partition C to W (or
any other available Drive Letter) with no resultant harm to his
operating system. Gene K
Click to expand...

No.
Because the system drive letter is heavily embedded in the Windows Registry
and other places... Just "changing" the drive letter is not advised (or
easy - on purpose...)
 
Gene K said:
If what you say is correct, then I assume that the originator of this thread
can just change his present Drive/Partition C to W (or any other available
Drive Letter) with no resultant harm to his operating system.
Click to expand...

Well it's too late now. At this point, the boot partition—in text format "C" and "c", in hex format 0x43 and 0x63, as well as in
numerous other formats, such as by partition number, and custom formats—is now present thousands of times in countless files and in
more places in the registry than there are stars in the sky.

They could have done so if everything just used a variable which could then be changed, thus telling everything that Windows is
installed in the new location, but that's just not the case. It's like with software development, you're taught to always use
variables instead of putting "magic numbers" in the source code because that way it's easy to make a change, but not everyone does.

Suffice it to say, that while it's technically possible to change the location where Windows is installed, it's just not practical.
It would be much simpler to simply reinstall.
 
Gene said:
If what you say is correct, then I assume that the originator of this
thread can just change his present Drive/Partition C to W (or any
other available Drive Letter) with no resultant harm to his operating
system. Gene K
Click to expand...


Are you addressing me? Without a quote, it's very difficult to be sure.
Moreoever quoting enough of the message you are replying to to put your
response into perspective is standard netiquette. You may see the message
you are replying to above yours, but do not assume that everyone reading
your message does. Many, if not most, newsgroup participants (including me)
don't save already-read mesages, and most messages without a quote are
completely incomprehensible.

To answer your question, no, your assumption is not correct. You can change
the drive drive letter of other partitions, but it's not possible to change
the letter of the Winodw partition.
 
Back
Top