Challenge: Renaming Boot Drive Letter in Dual-Boot System 1

[CCCarson]

OK, I know it's not the done thing. But I DO have the time to change lots of file paths, and I'd really like to solve this.

I have 2 IDE Drives, 0 and 1.

I can boot up to either IDE 0 or 1 and do a dual boot from either; plus I can press "delete," go into the BIOS, and trade IDE 0 for 1.

-- IDE 0 has 3 partitions, all Pri Bootable, with Windows ME in the first.
-- IDE 1 has 2 partitions, with XP Pro SP1 in the first, which is Pri Bootable. PLUS IDE 1 has an ext. part. (LBA), not bootable (I don't know where that one came from) and, exactly the same size, my only NTFS drive, listed as log. bootable.

In Millennium on IDE 0, ME is Drive C; the other drives are D and E. Looking at things from ME's perspective, the other disk contains F (XP) and G. Perfect; just the way I want it.

But from XP's point of view, XP occupies the coveted C: position, which throws everything else awry. If only I could change that XP (C file letter to (F! Then I could have identical drive letters in both systems. (I go back and forth a lot; hence my use of so much FAT32 instead of NTFS. It would be VERY handy to have identical letters, even though I've fudged things on my shortcut names.)

I have just survived an ultra-scary boot near-disaster, so I'm being cautious...sort of. I also have downloaded a copy of what seems like a beautiful program called BOOT-US. But so far I haven't found out how to change that boot letter.

I'm trying not to spend money or to re-install from scratch. Any suggestions??? Thank you.

____________
Celeron4 1.7/512 RAM, Primary Master IDE HDD 30 (Parts E,F,G); Slave 80 (Parts C(C+D), both 7200 Maxtors; Secondary Master CD-RW, Slave CD-ROM. 5 Windows partitions; dual-boot XPPro+ME; ADSL.

 

[linney]

May be something here to interest you?

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...UkN9fHDHA.1548%40TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl&rnum=10

 

[Mertous]

I think you can do it in disk management.
In XP rightclick my computer and select manage. Then go to diskmanagement, rightclick the drive and select 'change drive letter'.
I think that's it. I'm at work at the mo so I can't check.

You'll also need a drive mapper to change all the references to C: to F: otherwise your whole system will mess up (especially considering you're changing the boot drive).

I 100% recommend getting Partition Magic. - Preferably 8. It will sort out all your problems (it will definitely be able to change the drive letter) and offers a drive mapper to save you the hassle of trawling through windows and the registry.

 

[soaplover]

Be careful using a drive mapper, it scans on all visible drives .
(the PM8.0 one does) Only way i could get it do to it right was to have all other patrtitions hidden when doing this . Else it changes all shortcuts having a c:\...
into f:... all over the place .

Changing the driveletter of the xp installation is VERY RISKY . Be prepared for a total f...up .
I won't recommend it .
Assign reasonable volume names to the partitions instead .
E.g for ME mode:
VOL C:WIN_ME
VOL F:WIN_XP
VOL DROGRAMS_1
...
...






//Regards Soaplover

 

[Mertous]

I agree. I tried this about a week ago and the first time I tried it cocked up completely and I had to reinstall. However the second time (after a format+reinstall) it worked fine.

If it was me I would just do as soaplover said and would just give each partition a name. that way you won't get confused.

 

[Freestone]

If you are selecting IDE1 as your boot device in BIOS, then there is no way to change drive assignments due to the fact that your XP partition is a primary partition.

I'm not familiar with BOOT US, but I'm betting just the fact that your XP partition is primary is determining its drive letter assignment.

This link explain how drive letters are assigned, in fact a lot of good info on this site that still applies today:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/partLetter-c.html

This explains the different types of partitions:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/struct_Partitions.htm

 

[soaplover]

So Crissy , what are your plans .
I think never mind the letters ,identify your partitions with vol names instead .
It's just the sort order in drive view in explorer that's affected.

Personally i just change letters on my cdroms.
I've always liked to have wy writer as W: ( W fo Write),
and my dvdrom as R: (R for reader) .
But after fiddling around with this some time ago i found it not worth it , just to have som other letters in "my computer".
Changing cdrom drive letter can also make problems with registry pointing to the old drive letter for installed games that has to be run with cd in ,and some other applications thats installed from that drive (not so important).

The problem with drivemapper is that you have dual boot,
if you run a drivemapper after e.g changed cdrom the mapper will change settings in the other op.system also(inkluding registry of it)

//Regards Soaplover

 

[wolluf]

boot-us is an excellent boot manager - but doesn't have any impact on drive letters.

There is a method to change system drive in XP (

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q223188

- says 2k, but applies to XP too) - but its not recommended, because you have to change all associated registry entries too. All other drive letter changes can be done from disk management - which Mertous mentioned.

Freestone - the drive letter assigned to XP when you first install it depends on what else is visible to XP on the machine at the time of install. It doesn't matter whether its primary or extended (though extended normally has a primary present - which would impact on the drive letter) or IDE0 or 1. So for example, if there is already a primary partition and 2 CD/DVD devices, they will get C:, D:, E: and XP will get F:. If there is no other hard drive partition (I think it sometimes mistakes zip drives as hard and gives them C: too) present, XP will get C:.

 

[soaplover]

So i assume for a new install.
Use a boot/fdisk utility from cd/diskette
do not have more that 4 primary partitions already (incl old xp).
Delete the previos xp partition.
Now you have some unpartitioned space to host a new installation
( prefered in the beginning of drive )
Set all other partitions to hidden .
Install XP and it will get C:

... Is this right

//Regards Soaplover

 

[gpalmer711]

If you are going to go ahead with the drive letter change I would suggest getting this niffty piece of shareware

http://articulate-pr.com/RegSearch/REGSRCH.HTM

It is a search and replace tool for the registry. This should allow you to change all keys that contain c: and change them to f:. The shareware version allows you to start the program 25 times. This should be more than enough for what you need to do.

Greg Palmer

----------------------------------------
Any feed back is appreciated.

 

[wolluf]

nice one Greg - old version of cleansweep I used to run (3.05) included that functionality, and I've looked for a freeware to do replace it sporadically ever since I couldn't run cleansweep 3.05 any more (doesn't run on 2k). That shareware will do nicely (its only 'in case' - I don't do mass edits of registry on a regular basis!)

 

[soaplover]

Would this shareware toutch the registry for the ME installation also if it was visible .( i mean can you configure the search and where to search)

//Regards Soaplover

 

[gpalmer711]

Yes you can choose which keys to search. You can also decide whether you will be prompted each time it finds a match or if it just replaces it.

Greg Palmer

----------------------------------------
Any feed back is appreciated.

 

[wolluf]

Soaplover - reading the site, it has remote registry ability - for the same sort of registry. But won't touch a different windows registry on the same machine (wouldn't know its there). Just noticed its quite old too - so might be a bit dodgy with ME/2k/XP (newest install file is June 1999) - don't know if anything significant different between 9x->ME and NT->2k-XP registries (I always think they're much the same, but...)

 

[CCCarson]

Wow! Lots of good suggestions! OK guys, I'll behave myself. I've just recently escaped a different tweaking disaster by a hair, so this time I'll read everything you've suggested before I lift a finger!

-- I've already re-labelled the volumes, and that is a good idea. Everything is pretty good. On the XP desktop, my shortcuts are fudged so they show the same drive letters as in ME. The sequence is C-D-E + F-G in ME, but the best I've been able to achieve in XP is "truly" M-D-E + C-G, where M stands for "Millennium" while XP usurps drive letter C. You can see that the other three drives' letters are consistent.

So today I'll follow up all your leads and study everything. Actually I wouldn't mind re-setting shortcuts; I'm good at tweaking, but I usually don't do direct registry changes, because my index finger gets a bit itchy....

Anyway, my setup is only a hiccup when you open a directory and the "wrong" letter follows the label: "Say, what...?"

-- Plus it's not nice alphabetically. I suppose there's something in me that says WE are supposed to run the MACHINES, and honestly I don't like BEING run BY the machines. I wanted to show my computer who's boss. -I'm afraid I did....

Thanks, everyone!



____________
Celeron4 1.7/512 RAM, Primary Master IDE HDD 30 (3 Parts); Slave 80 (2 Parts), both 7200 Maxtors; Secondary Master CD-RW (W, Slave CD-ROM (Q. 5 Windows partitions; dual-boot XPPro+ME; ADSL.

 

[soaplover]

Just asking cause in the past i had ME/XP dual boot myself
with partition magics bootmanager (bootmagic 8) .

Partition magics drivmapper (PM8)after changing letters
made a mess for me then . But i don't remember all the details ,it was some time ago.

//Regards Soaplover

 

[Freestone]

This explains why XP on the secondary IDE interface has received the C: drive designation:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825668

 

[bcastner]

Freestone,

It still confuses me. What exactly is "optomized" by this re-ordering?

 

[soaplover]

With your goals Cissy ,you are letting yor ME decide drive letter assigning for your XP .
95/98/ME assigns alphabetically ,there is no option to have "holes" in drive lettering in ME .

So with your attitude against the fabolous.. drive letters matching
in both boots you are in fact letting the WinME control
your xp setup .

Think about that (WinME decides)

//Regards Soaplover

 

[Freestone]

Now this is scary - when BC admits confusion, is there any hope for the rest of us? ;-)

I was/am confused by CissyG's XP on the secondary IDE showing up as C: and wolluf's explanation saying it should be F: drive. I apologize for generating any further confusion.

My guess on what is being optimized is the TIME it takes Setup to do its PNP enumeration.