Changing the drive letter for 2nd HDD after install.

[fancmn]

Hello and thanks in advance for your consideration,

The baseline drive structure on my Win98 SE2 rig was a single HDD (C: & D: partitions) and CD (E.

I recent added a second HDD to my rig and discovered the CD had been bumped to the F: position.

As you might expect, this broke most of my existing CD-based software installs.

I had attempted to avoid this problem by hard coding the CD to the E: drive letter (first - last) from Device Manager prior to the install.

I also configured the new drive from FDISK as an Extended partition to reduce the chance of letter shuffles.

Since the CD is not working with most programs anyway, I have moved it back in the alphabet for the moment

The real question now, is how to get the new drive off the E: drive letter.

Device Manger shows some settings for the new drive under the + Disk Drives heading. But the drive letter assignment cannot be edited from here.

The Registry location for this drive seems to be located under \Hkey_local_machine\Enum\ESDI\Generic_IDE_Disk_Type80 (in my case).

One would think that the current drive letter could be changed from this screen, but it only seems to temporarily change the readout in Device Manger without any other system impact.

A reboot after the Registry change also produces no change.

Essentially, I'm trying to move the new drive from E: to the now clear F: letter.

Once this drive is moved off E:, getting my CD back in line should be simple enough.

Any help would be appreciated...

 

[Jakespeare]

Maybe reghakr will help with this one.
(see list of Aces on R upper screen)

When I have to change a programs drive letter - and I only do this for Windows, I find it very easy to change the letter in the Registry.
I do this after I reinstall Windows from the C: drive, like using C:\WIN98 - when I do a re-install of Windows 98 over the top of an existing installation.
The OLD registry would say,,,,,,,, D: drive (for CD-ROM),
or something like,
C:\CABS\OPTIONS\OEM etc.........
I want the new Registry to read,,,,,,,,, C:\WIN98

So, it's just a matter of changing a "D" to a "C" in 3 spots in the Windows Registry.

>> Now, in theory, you could use this poor method to change the same thing in the programs that you have already have.
Also,,,,,, *** When you run a program, and it wants the CD-ROM,,,,,,, are you not prompted for the CD ? Then, can't you use the BROWSE function, and change the E to an F, and then the program will work from then on out ?
This edits the registry and changes that. Next time it shouldn't prompt you.

> Last: As far as my knowledge goes on this, Windows will set up HDD's BEFORE the CD-ROM, and this is designed that way. I have not taken the time to research this, nor tried to learn how to change it. I too change hard drives ALL the time in my system, and sometimes have up to 7 HDD partitions, and 3 CD-ROMS, (2-DVD's) and one CD-RW.
These change, and it is only a minor inconvenience to me.
The programs always ask, and I just tell them one time (if they can't find the CD-ROM) where it is at.

 

[Mechelsdic]

Taking what Jakespeare said a little further, yes, Windows sets the hd letters first and then enumerates the other ide devices last. You won't win that battle. While it's possible to force logical drives ahead of primary partitions using NT (Partition Magic does it as an example), you won't get a CD ahead of a hd. Even a Ramdrive will load with a letter ahead of a CD.

 

[fancmn]

Another poster on a different forum provided this URL:

http://www.v72735.f2s.com/LetAssig/

This *great* utility allows you to change drive letters for installed HDD.

Lucky someone made this util, fixing one program at a time thru the Reg and other config files wasn't really going to be practical.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Mechelsdic]

Also discovered upon investigating that Partition Magic has a utility called DriveMapper that you can tell what drive letter changed to what and it will go and find all the affected apps and redirect them to the new drive assignments for you. It even gets file associations for you like say if Word was on a drive that got it's letter changed, DriveMapper will restore the association so you can still dbl click on .doc files and open them in Word. But hey!!! Free.....Lot's of bucks.....free....lot's of bucks....no brainer. lol Thanks fancmn

 

[Jakespeare]

fancmm,,,,,,,,,,
I guess you missed the point of your own post: To change your CD-ROM.

In your last post, you mention a utility to change (and I quote) "This *great* utility allows you to change drive letters for installed HDD."

..... well, that will let you swap D: & E;,,, but the CD-ROM, it ain't a HDD.

Your back where you started from.