Changing XP Drive Letters

[Markel]

I recently had a problem with one of my Raid-0 stripe sets breaking. I had a recent ghost image of the entire "drive", so I rebuilt the stripe set and used Norton Ghost to restore the image from the backup drive to the stripe set. However, there's a problem (why else would I be writing here?). When the Ghost image was created, the disk contained partitions C:, D:, and E: (Windows 98 Fat32) and H: and I: (XP Pro NTFS). (PartitionMagic wanted to set things up that way when I created the dual-boot on this system. The F: and G: drives were the optical drives.) Now, when Ghost restores this drive, it creates patitions C:, D:, and E: which work fine. But the NTFS partitions are created as F: and G:, and as a result I can't even log on to XP (it just sits at the Login screen, but no account names appear, and I can't ctrl/alt/delete into the alternate login screen. (I discovered the F: G: partition naming by booting to the XP recovery console.) What I want to do is boot (from a floppy or CD) and change the F: and G: partitions to be H: and I: . Any suggestions on how to accomplish this?

[Dman33]

I am not sure if the XP Recovery Console has the diskpart utility, but if it does, then you may be able to change the letters via recovery console.
DiskPart (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415)

[rajatQ2]

Useful MS KB article:

Unable to Log on if the Boot Partition Drive Letter Has Changed

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;249321

[johnnymk]

Disable Plug and Play temporarily?

[rajatQ2]

Disable Plug and Play temporarily?

also, use extra sour cream on your next taco.


they are all related.

[Markel]

So far, nothing to help. The hobbled system isn't networked, so I can't edit its registry from another system. However, I have copied (using an NTFS-aware DOS prompt utility) all the registry files (in their native format, not as .reg files) to one of the Windows 98 partions and then to a USB drive. Anybody know of an "offline" registry editor that can be directed to the registry files to edit (rather than only operating on the current system)? If I can do that, I should be able to re-assign the drive letters on the copied registry files, then copy them back to the hobbled system.

[Markel]

Well, the problem is a bit different than I originally thought. After I found a registry editor that would allow me to open a "foreign" registry (i.e., the hives from a different system), I found that the partition assignments are what they should be. So what appears to be the issue is that after I restore the partitions, Windows XP is "hiding" all the user accounts. All I get is the screen where you usually click on a user icon, with no icons. And ctrl/alt/del twice doesn't do anything.