Can you change/swap fixed drive letters in XP?(Or in 98/ME for that matter..) I don`t think so,unless anyone can tell me otherwise.Even if you could there are other problems to consider-i.e.changing system file references from the original drive locations to the current drive locations.I seem to recall there was a program which could do this.It was included with Partition Magic...Get your thinking caps on,guyz..
Changing system drive letters in XP?
- Thread starter plextorman
- Start date
XP Help Search for "Drive Letters" all is revealed BUT be careful reassigning Drive Letters.
Yeah,thanks for that poacher,but I`ve already done that.It`s just that a couple of weeks ago,I had to repartition my drives (I used a program called Disk Magic)and do a fresh install.Somehow Disk Magic ballsed it upThe-poacher said:
-i.e. my c: drive is now f: and so on..It does no harm whatsoever but it`s hard to get used to,and I wouldn`t mind changing it back to what I`m used to without having to start again (fdisking it etc.)
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PC-GUY
1
In XP you can try this but I don't know if it will let you change the drive where your os is on it.
right mouse click My Computer => click on Manage that will bring up Computer Management => then click on Storage => Disk Management => Then right mouse click (your F) then click on Change Drive Letter and Paths...
Like I said I've done it to cd drives and stuff but never to the os hard drive. So I would say you might want to do some back up before try just in case it doesn't boot back up. But let me know if it works. I hope that helps.
Good luck.
right mouse click My Computer => click on Manage that will bring up Computer Management => then click on Storage => Disk Management => Then right mouse click (your F) then click on Change Drive Letter and Paths...
Like I said I've done it to cd drives and stuff but never to the os hard drive. So I would say you might want to do some back up before try just in case it doesn't boot back up.
But let me know if it works. I hope that helps. Good luck.
@PC-GUY Thanks,but I`ve already tried that.It`s impossible with the main os drive.You just can`t `reletter` it.I`ll just live with it.Suppose it`s good for security reasons though...(somebody breaks in,they automatically head for the c drive,whaaattt?...it`s empty!...doh!) rotfl rotfl
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Thanks a million for that BVV..I`ve still got 98/ME lying around somewhere,and good handy software`s always welcome.Plus it`s FREEWARE!! Might contact the author and see if he`s got any plans for an XP version...BVV said:
Wishbone Ash
New member
Plextorman,plextorman said:Thanks a million for that BVV..I`ve still got 98/ME lying around somewhere,and good handy software`s always welcome.Plus it`s FREEWARE!! Might contact the author and see if he`s got any plans for an XP version...
You CAN change the drive letter of your primary active partition.
Go into the registry (back it up before hand) and go to HKEY_Local_Machine and then SYSTEM, then MountedDevices. Then rename your "F:" drive by renaming the String "\DosDevices\F:" to "\DosDevices\C:".
Make sure that your boot.ini file is up to date and points to C: not F:. It may be that Winxp doesn't like the F->C change at all. In which case boot from your Winxp CD and do a repair install -> Press Enter to install, agree to EULA, then when it detects your already installed Windows press R to repair, do NOT press Enter - this will do a fresh install and wipe your drive.
Once Winxp has done it's repair install you should have all your old system back but now the F: drive is C:.
Many thanks for these interesting fixes,(I`d NEVER press "enter" on a repair install anyway..Wishbone Ash said:
but thanks anyway..) ,Wishbone Ash! And welcome to the Forum,m8
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Sorry m8,this doesn`t work.The drive letters are still the same after 'repair'.I suspect it needs to be 'repaired' at a 'lower level' (DOS) Thanks for the thought anyway....If the worst comes to the worst I`ll back the whole system up then FDISK it-that`ll DEFINITELY return the drive letters to what they should be! It`s apt you should mention DOS somewhere in your post...and I suspect that`s where the solution to the problem really lies....Wishbone Ash said:
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Thanks N.B.,I`m always open to new ideas.Please give more information on this...BTW,I remember I had an old copy of Partition Magic I used to use on Windows 98.It had tools which could do it all...Now it`s too old..I suspect it`s not up to the job of handling XP....I could go out and buy a copy of Partition Magic 8(..or is it 9 yet?) which I`m sure would do it.But I don`t want to spend good money (PM`s never been cheap....)for such a relatively minor problem....N.B. said:There is one fix I know:
The exchange servers mounts a virtual device ..
on one box we handled it to mount one partition 2 times ...
so first it was e: and now it is c: and e:
I am not sure if that is acceptable but if it is ...
I could guide you through that
Well,I decided to give up the ghost...I backed up my system then did a low level format.Then used FDisk..etc.Now my system`s back to what it should be.-When using a 'new' program,make sure you know what it can and can`t do before using it-I will from now on...
Sorry i didnt read this earlier
the way to change drive letter assignments in windows XP Pro is
1. control panel
2. administrative tools
3. computer management
4. Disk management
if you have several disks/partitions it is best to note down the letter and description of each one first, then reasign a new drive letter like x or y or z,
to all existing drives, once you have done this you can then go about re assigning the drive letters as you require. This is because you cannot assign a letter that is already being used ie. if you wanted to swap D to E and already have a drive E it wont let you do it, so first assign E to ie. Z then assign D to E and then assign Z back to whatever
hope this helps
the way to change drive letter assignments in windows XP Pro is
1. control panel
2. administrative tools
3. computer management
4. Disk management
if you have several disks/partitions it is best to note down the letter and description of each one first, then reasign a new drive letter like x or y or z,
to all existing drives, once you have done this you can then go about re assigning the drive letters as you require. This is because you cannot assign a letter that is already being used ie. if you wanted to swap D to E and already have a drive E it wont let you do it, so first assign E to ie. Z then assign D to E and then assign Z back to whatever
hope this helps
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Errr,thanks for that,but I already know this..The key factor was that I needed to change the drive letter of the active main boot partition-which is impossible-because it`s ALWAYS active! Remapping the others is easy! Consider installing another hard drive (as slave on the primary channel) with another OS installed and boot this from the system bios options at bootup (F8).The main problem here of course is 'reading' the primary drive-If the primary drive is NTFS then the slave drive must also be NTFS.NTFS to FAT Yes!, FAT to FAT Yes! FAT to NTFS-A no,no! And so on.Voila! The once 'active' drive is active no more and can be changed at will..stimpleton said: