Hi, Bill.
WHICH KB article? There are THOUSANDS of them!!
To be sure you understand what Microsoft means by "boot drive", read this KB
article:
Definition of System and Boot Partition
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/100525/EN-US/
Those terms are used quite differently from the way we usually say them. As
many writers have pointed out, we BOOT from the SYSTEM partition and keep
the operating SYSTEM files in the BOOT volume. And "drive" often means a
"volume", which can be a primary partition or it can be a logical drive in
an extended partition - but we never assign a "drive" letter to a complete
hard drive, only to a volume on that hard drive.
With those semantics issues taken care of...
There's no easy way to change the letter of either the System Partition or
the Boot Volume. The most effective way is to reinstall Win2K, including
repartitioning and reformatting. You may be referring this KB article:
How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;223188
But note that the first line under Summary says, "Warning Do not use the
procedure that is described in this article to change a drive on a computer
where the drive letter has not changed." In other words, that article is
only to RESTORE the previous letter in situations where the boot volume
letter has changed after Win2K was installed. More often, we are trying to
change the letter that was assigned during the initial installation; this KB
article is not meant for that typical situation.
My guess is that you need to read this KB article:
Cannot Change System Volume Drive Letter After Setup
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;223769
It says, "You cannot change the drive letter of the system volume after
Windows 2000 Setup is finished. The drive letter of the hard disk on which
Windows is installed is hard-coded in the registry. " And the only solution
it mentions is a "clean" installation of Windows 2000.
One step short of a "clean" install is the "in-place upgrade", which
reinstalls Win2K but preserves installed applications and data; it does not
require a reformat of the system or boot volume. Instructions for that are
here:
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q292175&
The version of Win2K that will be reinstalled is the version on the CD-ROM
that you use. Be sure to visit Windows Update, as soon as you get your
firewall and antivirus back into place and get back online, so that you will
have the latest Service Pack and other critical updates.
Before starting the in-place upgrade, be sure to think through your
situation and decide which drive letters you want to end up with. You may
need to physically reconfigure your hard drives to get the result you want.
For example, many users have bought a new big HD, plugged it in as the
primary master with the old one moved to secondary or slave, and clean
installed Win2K (or WinXP) on the new HD - and wound up with the System
Partition on G:. That's because Win2K Setup detected the old Active
(bootable) partition on the second HD and let it keep C:, and then it found
other volumes and CD/DVD drives and assigned them D:, E: and F: - and then
created the new partition on the new HD and assigned it the next available
letter. If you want to be sure that your new System Partition is C:, then
disconnect all HDs except the one you want to install Win2K on. You can
always connect them after Win2K is up and running and use Disk Management to
assign or change all the drive letters EXCEPT for the System Partition and
Boot Volume.
If you need details drive letter assignment, you might want to read one more
KB article:
How Windows 2000 Assigns, Reserves, and Stores Drive Letters
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;234048
It may not be much consolation, but you are not alone. This question is
asked and answered daily in these newsgroups. :>(
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
