tough situation here with windows drive letters

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob G
  • Start date Start date
B

Bob G

I don't want to go into the details of the problem, but I need a way to
change a drive letter from "D" to "E" OUTSIDE the windows environment. The
incorrect drive letter "D" is making windows UNBOOTABLE.

Is there a utility, or a windows console command or ANYTHING that will allow
me to change the drive letter for a drive under windows xp from "D" to "E"
without having a windows environment to do so (since windows won't boot with
the incorrect drive letter assignment I cannot access the computer
management snap-in)

Thank You. I'd appreciate detailed instructions, if possible. Even a
utility would be nice....

Thanks,

Bob
 
That information is in the registry hive under mounted devices. First
learn the format of the registry. Then write a utility to modify the
correct field.
What makes you think that's the problem? Is this a byproduct of a disk
clone?
 
Editing the boot.ini on your C: partition should allow you to correct
this problem. Plug the drive in as a USB drive, SATA drive, or IDE
secondary drive in another computer, and boot the system. Make sure you
backup the boot.ini before making *any* changes. If you're not sure
which entries to change/remove then paste the contents of the file back
here and we'll help you through it.
 
Bob said:
I don't want to go into the details of the problem, but I need a way to
change a drive letter from "D" to "E" OUTSIDE the windows environment.
The incorrect drive letter "D" is making windows UNBOOTABLE.

Is there a utility, or a windows console command or ANYTHING that will
allow me to change the drive letter for a drive under windows xp from "D"
to "E" without having a windows environment to do so (since windows won't
boot with the incorrect drive letter assignment I cannot access the
computer management snap-in)

Thank You. I'd appreciate detailed instructions, if possible. Even a
utility would be nice....
Click to expand...

Asked and answered in the other newsgroup to which you posted. Next time
don't multipost; crosspost instead. If you have forgotten where you posted
or can't find your post, use Google Groups Advanced Search and search for
your name.

http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm - multiposting vs. crossposting

As I said in answer to your post in the other newsgroup, the answer to your
question is no. You need to fix XP's boot files, not the drive letter
assignment. XP's boot files are boot.ini, NTLDR, and Ntdetect.com.

Malke
 
You've received a few good suggestions here and elsewhere. One of them is
probably the solution you need. Without more details it's pretty hard to say
which is the correct solution for your particular problem.
 
I found the answer myself. Can't believe nobody here knows about the
"diskpart" command. Unbelievable. I tracked it down myself, thank you.

The computer was not booting because there was a program in the boot
sequence that was on the "E" drive, that had been changed to "D" during a
cloning operation. I was copying (cloning) two partitions from one hard
drive to another. C cloned fine (retained the drive letter C), but the
other partition which had been "E" on the old harddrive became "D" on the
new harddrive.

Since there was a utility on "E" required in the boot sequence, windows
would not boot.

Sometimes some of the propellor heads in here that think they know it all,
can't answer the simple question I asked.

So, I'll tell the group how to do it.

From recovery console:

Enter "diskpart"
then issue the command "list volume"
bring the volume you want to change the drive letter for into focus by
entering
"select volume x" where x is the volume with the drive letter needing to be
renamed.
enter the command assign letter=x where x is the new drive letter
assignment you need.

Propellor head, know it all's.... please, just answer the question. If you
don't know the answer don't post B.S. about cross posting, etc. I'm not
impressed by your supposed "knowledge". I programmed mainframe computers
for 20 years, I doubt you can touch my technical expertise. If you can't
answer the question, then don't clog up the thread trying to show off your
supposed expertise. Again, I'm not impressed by you.

To those who really tried to help, thank you.

I've given the solution to anybody here that may need to change a drive
letter for the same reason I had to.... there was a program on a designated
drive required to complete the boot sequence and that drive had a different
letter assigned during a clone operation.

Bob
 
I don't think all of that is necessary, Bob. The drive clone operation
would have have been nice to see in the first post, instead of at the
end of your assault on Kerry.
 
I wasn't speaking of Kerry, but Malke....

He told me "the answer to your question is NO" and by the way, don't cross
post.

He shouldn't have posted anything because he was absolutely no help, and I
don't need lessons on how to post to newsgroups. I'm not impressed with his
help or knowledge at all...

Kerry, if you thought I was speaking to you, sorry... I was directing my
comments to Malke...
 
I see what you're saying. I thought that was a reply to Kerry. In any
event I'm glad you got it solved!!
 
And justen, remember, I asked one simple question

how do you change a drive letter when you cannot boot into windows

I didn't need lessons on boot loaders, newsgroup ettiquite, etc. I get
tired of these people that DON'T KNOW the answer, but still like to blow off
techy jargon to try and impress the world. Give me a break!
 
=]

Bob said:
And justen, remember, I asked one simple question

how do you change a drive letter when you cannot boot into windows

I didn't need lessons on boot loaders, newsgroup ettiquite, etc. I get
tired of these people that DON'T KNOW the answer, but still like to blow off
techy jargon to try and impress the world. Give me a break!
Click to expand...
 
Bob said:
I wasn't speaking of Kerry, but Malke....
Click to expand...

(snip)

Well frankly, Sunshine, I'm not impressed with you either. You didn't give
any information about what you were really trying to do and you
multiposted.

You obviously *don't* know how to post to Usenet or you would have provided
some information about what you were trying to do instead of being too
fscking lazy to explain your situation so people who really *wanted* to
help you would be able to.

If you had told us what you wanted to do, you might have gotten better
answers.

Don't bother to respond. I've killfiled you. Look it up, jerk.

Malke
 
Bob G said:
And justen, remember, I asked one simple question

how do you change a drive letter when you cannot boot into windows

I didn't need lessons on boot loaders, newsgroup ettiquite, etc. I get
tired of these people that DON'T KNOW the answer, but still like to blow
off techy jargon to try and impress the world. Give me a break!
Click to expand...


I'm pretty sure everyone that answered your question knows about the
diskpart command. Because you didn't include some crucial information in
your first post the people answering it had to guess. I'm glad you got your
problem solved. In the future if you want focused help I recommend that you
don't leave out the details. It's much better to err on the side of too much
detail rather than too little. Going on what little information you had in
your first post the most likely cause of your problem was a bad boot.ini
file. It's actually a pretty bad practice to call a utility on another drive
or partition that is crucial to the boot process. Windows can change the
drive enumeration for many reasons. During the first part of the boot
process the only thing you can count on is the boot drive as you have found
out.
 
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