how to change drive letter?

cuti7399

Platinum Member
Jul 9, 2003
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Hi,
I just finished a build and I had 2 raptors raid but windows asigned it as drive I. How do I change it to drive C. Thanks
 

Atheus

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2005
7,313
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Did you install on that drive? If so I think it's impossible - I remember trying one time but giving up and reinstalling.

How you get it to come up as C when you reinstall depends on your setup.
 

Jeeebus

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2006
9,181
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126
right click my computer --> manage --> disk management --> right click drive letter --> change drive letter and paths
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
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Pretty sure you can't change the drive letter of the boot disk.
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
30,672
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really? it would stink to have to reinstall

There are too many hard-coded drive letters in the registry to get them all on the first try so if you change the letter your current install will likely not boot.

But really, why do you care what letter the drive is?
 

xgsound

Golden Member
Jan 22, 2002
1,374
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81
Originally posted by: cuti7399
really? it would stink to have to reinstall


That is likely what would happen if you succeed in changing the boot drive letter. I seem to recall (sorry ... I'm old) hearing several stories about people changing drive letters or adding/removing drives on working multidrive systems only to have them become unbootable. When the original install was with one drive, there seems to be less problems. I also have no idea if any of your data from a ruined raid system would be recoverable.


Jim
 

cuti7399

Platinum Member
Jul 9, 2003
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But really, why do you care what letter the drive is?

well, because i want to run some remote installation and as default it will look for C drive

I guess I will have to reinstall windows
 

mezrah

Senior member
Aug 23, 2005
765
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Originally posted by: cuti7399
But really, why do you care what letter the drive is?

well, because i want to run some remote installation and as default it will look for C drive

I guess I will have to reinstall windows

Did you have a card reader plugged in during install. I've heard of people getting their boot drive set at H: or I: or something that way.

Although, when I just installed Vista I had it plugged in and still my boot drive ended up as C:
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
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Vista always assigns your boot drive to C. HOWEVER Vista's install will always install the MBR to Disk 0 Partition 0 regardless of what drive this is. If this occurs, you can only boot Vista with the DVD in the drive.

When installing Windows XP, ensure you have no other disk mediums installed that will take the default from the main boot drive.
 

Smilin

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2002
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Originally posted by: cuti7399
But really, why do you care what letter the drive is?

well, because i want to run some remote installation and as default it will look for C drive

I guess I will have to reinstall windows

*sigh*. The drive letter the OS is installed on isnt' supposed to matter and if proper practices were followed it wouldn't. There are system variables that are mean to be used just for this sort of thing:
%SystemDrive%
%SystemRoot%
%Userprofile%
%temp%
etc..

It is possible to change the drive letter by modifying the mounteddevices key but this merely changes the drive letter. If things were installed that made references to this drive letter in the registry this won't update them and crap will break. mounteddevices is usefull for changing the driveletter back to what it should be if an inadvertent change occurs.

If you are stuck needing to change the boot drive letter after the fact then a reinstall now would be the way to go.
 

Pacemaker

Golden Member
Jul 13, 2001
1,184
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They are western digital drives so if you want an exact copy of your old boot drive then use the "data lifeguard tool" and it will automatically re-assign the drive letter when done (at least it did when I used it). I don't remember the exact settings, but I think it was something like "replace my current boot drive" or something to that effect.
 

cuti7399

Platinum Member
Jul 9, 2003
2,583
0
76
now i can even boot into windows, just a blank screen, this is getting frustrating, tried new bios, no help
I can't even boot to new installation screen when I decided to reinstall windows. It got stuck to a blank screen after say "setup is determine configuration....."
When i set the sata configuration is the bios to IDE then I get the installation done, but then I would have no raid!!!!!