changing HDD label thing

[kimchicowboy]

ok. i just installed a new HDD as the primary master. no other HDDs. two optical drives on the secondary IDE. and a removeable drive for my compact flash reader. now, after reinstalling windows and everything else, my HDD is shown as drive F: and my removeable drive as drive C:. how can i switch them around? thanks!

[spigidygak]

hate to bring the news to ya. . . but there is no real easy way but to start from scratch. It is possible to switch but it would take a lot of patience and time to fix up the registry. The next time you reinstall don't put in the removeable drive while you install it, otherwise it may happen again.

[kimchicowboy]

i never had this problem with my old HDD though. i've reformmated it and reinstalled XP several times without this problem. argg. thanks though.

[spigidygak]

Originally posted by chosenfool
You want your new (only) HDD to be C:, right? actually if youre in XP, there IS an easy way.

all you need is to access Computer Management.

go to Start, then control panel. then doubleclick on administrative tools. then doubleclick on computer management.
or just Start-->Run... type compmgmt.msc, and enter.

either way, youll get to the computer management window. look for Disk Management and click on it. The top right-hand window pane should give you the description of all the drives in your system. The lower right window pane has a graphical view of those drives. You can RENAME AND CHANGE THE DRIVE LETTERS here.
just rightclick right where the graphical representation of the drives are and go down to CHANGE DRIVE LETTER AND PATH...
a window will pop up and just click on the CHANGE... Button, and when it says "assign the following drive letter", click down on the drive letter you want. Click OK and youre done.

of course that drive letter you want to use for that drive needs to be available. So make sure that you first assign the drive that has the C: letter with another letter, so as to free up the letter C. THEN assign your HDD that letter.

i use this often, to easily differentiate drives. C: for my OS, M: for music, D: for DVDRW, and X: for my pr0n. :P

anyways, hope that helps!

Man I don't know what I did wrong but I had the similar problem and I couldn't use disk manager to change the drive to C: it just wouldn't let me. Kept on getting a message about not being able to change the boot drive or something to that extent. And c: was available.

[spigidygak]

Originally posted by chosenfool
oh, my bad. sorry about that.
but youre right - i tried it myself, and true enough, it wont let me change the boot volume also. thing is, i coulda sworn i was able to change it at one point or another...now i dont know either. :hmm:

hmm, aint that a kicker...

I think before xp it was dooable in 98se. . . maybe I'm wrong. But I have never been able to do it in xp or w2k.

[Jeffbx]

Didja try booting without the removable drive installed & then trying to change the letters? It might let you if the C:\ drive is not available...

[bachviet]

Why don't you remove the compact flash reader and reinstall Windows with your new HDD. It's not the quickest way but it's an easiest way.

[GilbertsGrape]

what about partition magic will it change it

[seqiro]

It's not as bad as all that, guys. :)


http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223188


However, it can cause problems. A re-install is the safest route.

[kimchicowboy]

does a re-install wipe out the programs i already installed? or do i have to reformat and reinstall? i really don't have the time to reinstall the programs right now. thanks for the help!

[spigidygak]

A reinstall will keep the programs already there. It just replaces the core windows shsctuff. But I don't think that will change the drive letters. Give it a shot, but I think you have to reformat. Just make sure you take out that flash memory before doing it.

[seqiro]

I still think that you should follow that KB article above and then if you are having boot problems, follow step #5 in the other KB article referenced (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;249321) before doing a format. I mean, what have you got to lose if you plan to wipe everything anyway?