Changing drive letters in win xp

[CletusTheDwarf]

I just installed a new hard drive in my computer, but it wasn't assigned D: as I would like, a CD drive has that. How do I make the new hard drive D: and move all the other drives down one?

 

[johnjkr1]

Disk Management.

Control Panel. Administrative tools. Computer Management. Disk Management

 

[twodose]

When I do a clean format the way I get the right drive letter assignments is to :

Unhook everything but the C: drive and boot.

Shut down Hook up the D: drive and boot.

Shut down and hook up the E: drive then boot. etc..... When you use the disk management to change the drive letter it says that " changing the drive letter may stop programs from running". Although I have used this for a Zip or a CD, I don't use it for the main C: drive.

 

[nineball9]

If you added a new drive to an existing system, be aware that some CD based software already installed may look to your D drive if needed. If you replace the CD drive with a HD, the software may squawk.
Just a thought...

 

[CletusTheDwarf]

what johnjkr said worked fine, i just didn't know where to find those options. and there was already a hard drive on D:, i just replaced it.

 

[Lionel]

When I tried what Johnijr said, going into disk management, I get an error.

Unable to connect to Logical Disk Manager Service.

Any advice?

 

[Lionel]

Nevermind, I had the service disabled. Thanks

 

[Smilin]

Everyone is describing this to you:
307844 How to change drive letter assignments in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=307844

It's not going to work. Won't work for your boot drive. You'll need to use this although I don't recommend it.
223188 How To Restore the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=223188

Careful with that! If you've installed a lot of software you're going to have problems if they make any references to your drive letter. I would highly recommend a system restore point before you begin. You'll also want to familiarize yourself with how to change your userinit.exe path:

249321 Unable to Log on if the Boot Partition Drive Letter Has Changed
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=249321

This should help you figure out how you ended up with the wrong letter in the first place:
234048 How Windows 2000 Assigns, Reserves, and Stores Drive Letters
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=234048

If you are not too far into your move-in I would restart.



Edit: mmm, yeah scratch that. Just noticed you are fooling with a data drive letter not OS. Disk manager should do it. D'oh.