Problem with drive letter designation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Drkcougar
  • Start date Start date
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Drkcougar

I need to change the drive letter designation on my computer. When I
installed Win XP, it set the only hard drive as the F: drive. This has
been causing problems when installing some software. Keep in mind that
this is the boot drive as well. I need to change the designation to C:
to correct these problems, but have no idea how to do this. Any help
that can be provided on how to do this is greatly apperciated.

Thanks.

DrkCougar
 
Go to "Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management"
Select "Storage/Disk Management"
Right Click on your drive and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths"
Make the change, it will not take place until you reboot. Also there are
likely to be lots of warnings that this could cause problems.

Marc Reinig
System Solutions
 
Make sure that any programs you have installed will be able to find the new
drive designation C:. Some may point to F: drive. It could be a long
process changing everything.

My XP hard drive is F: and when I install programs the Install Wizard just
automatically points to F:.
My setup has two hard drives both set at Master, one on each channel on the
motherboard. The XP drive is on Channel 0. The other drive has my Win98SE
stuff and that drive is labeled C: and it's on Channel 1. The drives are in
removable drive bays. When I want to run Win98, I just turn off the machine
and swap the drives.

Bearman
 
Marc said:
Go to "Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management"
Select "Storage/Disk Management"
Right Click on your drive and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths"
Make the change, it will not take place until you reboot. Also there
are likely to be lots of warnings that this could cause problems.

Marc Reinig
System Solutions
Click to expand...


You claim to run a computer company yet you don't appear to know the basics.
You *CANNOT* change the letter of the system drive via DM - it will screw
everything up and he'll end up having to format anyway.

To the OP. The reason this happens is because you had an external drive
(hard drive, Zip, burner, whatever) attached during installation. The only
way to change this is to clean install with the drive disconnected.

Contrary to what Marc thinks (he's completely wrong, by the way) you
*cannot* change the system drive letter via Disk Management, causes all
sorts of problems and you'll end up having to format and reinstall anyway.

For confirmation, search http://groups.google.com with
microsoft.public.windowsxp.* in the group section and 'drive letter' in the
'exact phrase' box. Make sure the language is set to English, or you'll
return replies from everywhere else, even though your phrase is in English.
 
Cerridwen said:
You claim to run a computer company yet you don't appear to know the
basics. You *CANNOT* change the letter of the system drive via DM -
it will screw everything up and he'll end up having to format anyway.

To the OP. The reason this happens is because you had an external
drive (hard drive, Zip, burner, whatever) attached during
installation. The only way to change this is to clean install with
the drive disconnected.

Contrary to what Marc thinks (he's completely wrong, by the way) you
*cannot* change the system drive letter via Disk Management, causes
all sorts of problems and you'll end up having to format and
reinstall anyway.

For confirmation, search http://groups.google.com with
microsoft.public.windowsxp.* in the group section and 'drive letter'
in the 'exact phrase' box. Make sure the language is set to English,
or you'll return replies from everywhere else, even though your
phrase is in English.
Click to expand...

Correct answer. In fact DM tells you that you can't change the letter
assignation of the boot drive.
 
Cerridwen said:
You claim to run a computer company yet you don't appear to know the
Click to expand...
basics.



I didn't think I claimed to run anything. I just used my real name and
company instead of hiding behind a cute pseudonym.


You *CANNOT* change the letter of the system drive via DM - it will screw
Click to expand...
everything up and he'll end up having to format anyway.
Click to expand...



Actually, you're right. I did misspeak, I use Partition Magic a DM
replacement. DM does prevent you from doing things that might get you in
trouble if you don't know what you are doing. Partition Magic doesn't and
allows you to change the System or Boot drive letter, it warns you, but then
assumes you know what you are doing and lets you.


To the OP. The reason this happens is because you had an external drive
Click to expand...
(hard drive, Zip, burner, whatever) attached during installation. The only
Click to expand...
way to change this is to clean install with the drive disconnected.
Click to expand...



Not the only way. I prefer to keep all my settings, desktop, network, etc.
rather than doing a complete reinstall, but YMMV.



1. Use Partition Manager to rename your drive and reboot.

2. If you try to boot normally, you will be unsuccessful.

3. However, using your WinXP installation disk to boot, Select Install and
do a "Repair installation" (not the repair console), selecting the partition
you want to fix.

4. All system files and registry entries will be corrected for the selected
partition. Your user program registry entries can be manually updated, but
I prefer to use Partition Magic's Drive Mapper to do this automatically.



Marc Reinig

System Solutions
 
basics.



I didn't think I claimed to run anything. I just used my real name and
company instead of hiding behind a cute pseudonym.







Actually, you're right. I did misspeak, I use Partition Magic a DM
replacement. DM does prevent you from doing things that might get you in
trouble if you don't know what you are doing. Partition Magic doesn't and
allows you to change the System or Boot drive letter, it warns you, but then
assumes you know what you are doing and lets you.








Not the only way. I prefer to keep all my settings, desktop, network, etc.
rather than doing a complete reinstall, but YMMV.



1. Use Partition Manager to rename your drive and reboot.

2. If you try to boot normally, you will be unsuccessful.

3. However, using your WinXP installation disk to boot, Select Install and
do a "Repair installation" (not the repair console), selecting the partition
you want to fix.

4. All system files and registry entries will be corrected for the selected
partition. Your user program registry entries can be manually updated, but
I prefer to use Partition Magic's Drive Mapper to do this automatically.



Marc Reinig

System Solutions
Click to expand...
You will often find when you do this that programs installed before you
make the change will no longer work until you reinstall them, as their
registry entries and short cut links still point to the old, now
non-existant drive. An XP reinstall only corrects those program links that
are actually part of XP.

JT
 
You will often find when you do this that programs installed before you
make the change will no longer work until you reinstall them, as their
registry entries and short cut links still point to the old, now
non-existant drive. An XP reinstall only corrects those program links that
are actually part of XP.

JT
Click to expand...

Please read his comments about Drive Mapper...and other such programs.

Or it can be done manually.

Not that bigga deal.


Have a nice week...

Trent

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!
 
Please read his comments about Drive Mapper...and other such programs.

Or it can be done manually.

Not that bigga deal.


Have a nice week...

Trent

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!
Click to expand...

Did read that. Don't trust drive mapper, as it has failed in strange and
wonderous ways before. Some software seems to hide drive letters in out of
the way places, and no software like Drive mapper seems to catch them all.

JT
 
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