When I upgraded to Win XP and installed a larger HD, I left my old HD (designated 
C) installed.  My new primary, on which XP was installed, was assigned drive letter 
F.  I want my primary/boot drive designated C.  The disk management wizard lets me 
change the secondary HD from C to something else (e.g., H), but it won't let me reassign 
the drive letter for my primary.  

How can I get around this?  Does the static assignment feature prevent this even 
if I completely disconnect the old HD?  Can I change from static to dynamic drive 
letter assignment?  Would this make a work-around possible?

Harry

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re: Changing Primary/Boot Drive Drive Letter Sunday, November 3, 2002 at 7:53 am Posted by alek (103 messages posted) backup your system!! · Go to Start > Run and type regedit and press Enter. · Click your way down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > MountedDevices · · Right click on \DOSDevices\C: and select delete. · Right click on \DOSDevices\F: and select rename, and change F: to C: so it now looks like \DOSDevices\C: · Reboot the system and you should now have a new hard drive with all of your existing settings as primery C. On Saturday, November 2, 2002 at 8:02 am, Harry Frank wrote: >When I upgraded to Win XP and installed a larger HD, I left my old HD (designated >C) installed. My new primary, on which XP was installed, was assigned drive letter >F. I want my primary/boot drive designated C. The disk management wizard lets me >change the secondary HD from C to something else (e.g., H), but it won't let me reassign >the drive letter for my primary. > >How can I get around this? Does the static assignment feature prevent this even >if I completely disconnect the old HD? Can I change from static to dynamic drive >letter assignment? Would this make a work-around possible? > >Harry [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Changing Primary/Boot Drive Drive Letter Sunday, November 3, 2002 at 8:20 am Posted by Harry Frank (2 messages posted) Thanks for the prompt reply. Followed your instructions (after checking regedt32 to make sure I had full permissions). Now, my machine locks up at boot-up. Everything progresses through the black DOS screens and the WIN XP load-up screens to the blue screen with the small XP logo that usually appears just before my desktop comes up. Have mouse access, but that's all. Thought about doing an XP re-install, but didn't know if I should do a full install or a recovery. Thoughts . . . ? Harry On Sunday, November 3, 2002 at 7:53 am, jimi wrote: >backup your system!! > >· Go to Start > Run and type regedit and press Enter. >· Click your way down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > MountedDevices >· · Right click on \DOSDevices\C: and select delete. >· Right click on \DOSDevices\F: and select rename, and change F: to C: so it now >looks like \DOSDevices\C: >· Reboot the system and you should now have a new hard drive with all of your existing >settings as primery C. > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Changing Primary/Boot Drive Drive Letter Sunday, November 3, 2002 at 9:11 am Posted by alek (103 messages posted) any way your booying driv eis now c, I sugest re install xp...good luck On Sunday, November 3, 2002 at 8:20 am, Harry Frank wrote: > >Thanks for the prompt reply. > >Followed your instructions (after checking regedt32 to make sure I had full permissions). > Now, my machine locks up at boot-up. Everything progresses through the black DOS >screens and the WIN XP load-up screens to the blue screen with the small XP logo >that usually appears just before my desktop comes up. Have mouse access, but that's >all. > >Thought about doing an XP re-install, but didn't know if I should do a full install >or a recovery. > >Thoughts . . . ? > >Harry > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Changing Primary/Boot Drive Drive Letter Sunday, December 1, 2002 at 8:25 pm Posted by Steve (1 messages posted) I made a complete clone of my hard drive on a new, bigger hard drive with windows XP and I get the same problem with the windows xp logo and mouse movement but it doesn't load the user settings, it just waits there. did you find a workaround besides a complete reinstall? On Sunday, November 3, 2002 at 8:20 am, Harry Frank wrote: > >Thanks for the prompt reply. > >Followed your instructions (after checking regedt32 to make sure I had full permissions). > Now, my machine locks up at boot-up. Everything progresses through the black DOS >screens and the WIN XP load-up screens to the blue screen with the small XP logo >that usually appears just before my desktop comes up. Have mouse access, but that's >all. > >Thought about doing an XP re-install, but didn't know if I should do a full install >or a recovery. > >Thoughts . . . ? > >Harry > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Changing Primary/Boot Drive Drive Letter Saturday, December 7, 2002 at 4:33 pm Posted by Fernando Castillo (1 messages posted) I have the same problem... if anyone knows a workaround please post. -- Fernando On Sunday, December 1, 2002 at 8:25 pm, Steve wrote: >I made a complete clone of my hard drive on a new, bigger hard drive with windows >XP and I get the same problem with the windows xp logo and mouse movement but it >doesn't load the user settings, it just waits there. > >did you find a workaround besides a complete reinstall? > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Changing Primary/Boot Drive Drive Letter Monday, December 9, 2002 at 12:03 am Posted by freak (1 messages posted) Hallo, I had a similar Problem. It was really freaky to solve, took me 8 hours (!), I'm so glad now. I can't tell you how to change the drive letter of the boot partition, it's only about making the system running again. Ok, the main thing is: you need do set the registry entries to their former values. It's only about swapping two sinlge letters in a file!! Path of the registry file: windows\system32\config\system Search for strings "dosdevices". The Results look like in regedit "\DosDevices\C:" or "\DosDevices\D:". Swap the drive letters that you changed before or which you think might have changed. Don't do it in WordPad as it changes the file format and makes the file useless. Make a backup copy before! This was all I had to do. Fortunately I had a second OS on my PC (Win98) enabling me to start the computer at all. I first had to get a tool to get access to the ntfs-partition (ntfs for windows 98). RegdatXP is a tool to analyze the above named registry file. My Problem was caused by "brutally" changing drive letters with partition magic but this program fortunately created another "MountedDevice1"-Key which contained the original settings. Finally I needed an editor apart from notepad and wordpad. Last Problem was to copy the sytem file back. Therefore I startet the recovery console from the xp-cd-rom. Good luck everybody! PS.: And don't change too much drive letters.......;-) I won't. On Saturday, December 7, 2002 at 4:33 pm, Fernando Castillo wrote: > >I have the same problem... if anyone knows a workaround please post. > >-- Fernando > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Changing Primary/Boot Drive Drive Letter Monday, December 16, 2002 at 4:08 am Posted by TheJaKal (1 messages posted) Right, if u are stuck in XP without being able to log on, and dont feel like trying the above method (ie cant be bothered) then just pop your XP cd in, choose fresh install, then repair..... also sorts your drive letter out as well :) Good luck On Monday, December 9, 2002 at 12:03 am, freak wrote: >Hallo, > >I had a similar Problem. It was really freaky to solve, took me 8 hours (!), I'm >so glad now. > >I can't tell you how to change the drive letter of the boot partition, it's only >about making the system running again. > >Ok, the main thing is: you need do set the registry entries to their former values. >It's only about swapping two sinlge letters in a file!! > >Path of the registry file: >windows\system32\config\system > >Search for strings "dosdevices". The Results look like in regedit "\DosDevices\C:" >or "\DosDevices\D:". >Swap the drive letters that you changed before or which you think might have changed. >Don't do it in WordPad as it changes the file format and makes the file useless. >Make a backup copy before! > >This was all I had to do. Fortunately I had a second OS on my PC (Win98) enabling >me to start the computer at all. I first had to get a tool to get access to the ntfs-partition >(ntfs for windows 98). RegdatXP is a tool to analyze the above named registry file. >My Problem was caused by "brutally" changing drive letters with partition magic but >this program fortunately created another "MountedDevice1"-Key which contained the >original settings. Finally I needed an editor apart from notepad and wordpad. Last >Problem was to copy the sytem file back. Therefore I startet the recovery console >from the xp-cd-rom. > >Good luck everybody! > >PS.: And don't change too much drive letters.......;-) > >I won't. > > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Changing Primary/Boot Drive Drive Letter Monday, December 30, 2002 at 8:12 am Posted by Peter Carucci (1 messages posted) Until just now, I thought I was the only one with this freaky problem! Scenario: Brand new Dell 8200 system decides to crash right before Christmas. Not a hardware problem, though diagnosed as such by Dell tech support, who advised reinstall of XP as a last resort. Problem 1 : On reboot after copy of files from CD, system rebooted. After XP logo displayed, 20" flat screen monitor went blank. Apparently, video driver included w/XP release media could not drive this monitor. This could not be resolved even when intercepting boot and trying safe mode and "Enable VGA" options. Dell diagnoses failed video card (sigh) . I drag old 20" Trinitron from basement system and connect it. Voila! it displays, and I finish the installation. Subsequent reinstallation of the ATI drivers finaly allow display to 20" flat screen . Thanks for the knowledgeable support Dell... Problem 2: 2nd hard drive installed prior to crash containing MP3 and photo image files. After XP re-install, this drive maps as drive C, and the OS disk maps as drive F!!! Searching for reliable way to shift it back to the way it was, without rendering the system unbootable. On Monday, December 16, 2002 at 4:08 am, TheJaKal wrote: > > >Right, if u are stuck in XP without being able to log on, and dont feel like trying >the above method (ie cant be bothered) then just pop your XP cd in, choose fresh >install, then repair..... > >also sorts your drive letter out as well :) > > >Good luck > > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Changing Primary/Boot Drive Drive Letter Friday, January 3, 2003 at 1:35 pm Posted by Ben (2 messages posted) DON'T delete the DosDevice value keys!!!! Rename them, so that the binary values (""A5 2B 17 41 00 08 F6 01 00 00 00 00") remain the same, and Windows can still identify the correct partitions to mount volumes. If you delete the key and type it in from scratch, you have no way to generate the binary signature of the partition! Listen to the other folks, and right click \DosDevices\J: (or whatever your system drive incorrectly is) and click Rename. Change the name to \DosDevices\C:, and make sure the binary value is still there (looks kinda like this: "A5 2B 17 41 00 08 F6 01 00 00 00 00") This will enable you to still boot your machine after fixing your registry entries. ;-) If you still have a problem, run the repair option of your Windows Setup CD to reinstall files and repair registry entries. Setup will respect your new mappings, and install to C:\. After setup is complete, search your registry for any remaining references to the wrong drive (for example, "J:\") and change them to C:\. On Sunday, November 3, 2002 at 7:53 am, jimi wrote: >backup your system!! > >· Go to Start > Run and type regedit and press Enter. >· Click your way down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > MountedDevices >· · Right click on \DOSDevices\C: and select delete. >· Right click on \DOSDevices\F: and select rename, and change F: to C: so it now >looks like \DOSDevices\C: >· Reboot the system and you should now have a new hard drive with all of your existing >settings as primery C. > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Changing Primary/Boot Drive Drive Letter Wednesday, March 5, 2003 at 7:33 pm Posted by William (1 messages posted) Did this correct your problem? On Saturday, November 2, 2002 at 8:02 am, Harry Frank wrote: >When I upgraded to Win XP and installed a larger HD, I left my old HD (designated >C) installed. My new primary, on which XP was installed, was assigned drive letter >F. I want my primary/boot drive designated C. The disk management wizard lets me >change the secondary HD from C to something else (e.g., H), but it won't let me reassign >the drive letter for my primary. > >How can I get around this? Does the static assignment feature prevent this even >if I completely disconnect the old HD? Can I change from static to dynamic drive >letter assignment? Would this make a work-around possible? > >Harry [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows XP Discussion Forum