Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
Hi, my primary hard drive is F: and I have had a problem with a few things recenlty (installing) becuase I can't define the path to install it too. Anyway how can I change the drive letter F: (which is my bootable drive) to C? How can I do this without messing up all the shortcuts and files on my computer, what will I have to fix after this?
Thanks
Search the XP forum. Try "changing F: to C:" I saw it posted there a while back.
I think you can change it in the registry, but it is detailed. You may need to reinstall a lot of your software. You can change the shortcuts and file locations manually on some software.
FYI, when you install XP, the default is F; for some reason. You need to read the screens carefully to know when to change it to C:.
0 
Alright, I am wrong.
DON'T try it. The instructions above are for 2000.
I found the XP instructions I saw on another forum. It worked, but none of the document's or programs could be accessed when it was done (I should have read down to the last response).
You might be able to save documents to disk and reinstall all programs, but it would be faster to format / reinstall than do tons of registry editing and then still reinstall software.
0
There may be a work around. Is the boot partition F: a single partition on a separate physical disk?
0
I think wat ur asking OtheHill is is my boot drive F: the only partition on a single drive. Yes, F: is the partition on my 120gb hard drive, nothing else on this dirve is partitioned. I do have a seperate drive which is G: and is a single partition also.
I'd hate to have to reinstall everything all over again, but is that my only course of action? and if i have to do this, how would i change the drive letter since F: is my bootable drive?
0
I have norton ghost, if I back up my computer to an ghost image file and then recall it after the format would this get the job done?
I am unfamiliar with how ghost works and what it saves.
0
I think that if you disconnect the other harddrive and cable and jumper that drive to be the primary master, with no other drives connected at all(remove the cables and power), upon reboot that drive may be recognized as the C: drive. You need to have the drive connected on the end of the cable, jumpered as master only, and plugged into the primary IDE header. Upon reboot, enter the BIOS and Reset the other three drive selections to not installed. Set first boot device to be IDE0. Save and exit the BIOS and let the machine finish booting. Hopefully the drive will come up as the C: drive. If this works then you can add the other devices back in and rejumper the boot drive if you add a slave to that channel (don't know what all you have). Once you add the other drives back in you can assign any drive letters you like to them. If you need to reassign drive letters you must first move the drive occupying the letter to an unused letter (high) then reassign away. Good Luck
0
damn, i really do not feel like going through those steps, thank you tho for your help...
however if i format my hard drive, since no drive is C:, will i be able or will the recenetly formatted drive (previoulsy F:) become C:?
btw, does anyone know what norton ghost backs up when or how i can use it (2003 version) so when reinstalling stuff to my drive is less tedious..thanks
0
Sorry, but I do not think you can change the boot drive letter without serious registry editing. This will also affect your programs and permissions to your documents.
You are not alone in this. The same thing has happened to lots of people.
I searched and could not find ALL the keys you would need to edit. Without a step-by-step, it could take longer to play with the registry than to just reinstall (and you can make your drive unbootable in the process, which would require a reinstall anyway).
If you ghost it and reinstall the image, the ghosted registry will still list your boot drive as F:, no matter how you swithc the drives.
0
I think i will transfer all saved files over to my storage drive temporarily. Then I am going to format F:, re-parition it and reinstall windows. During the re-partioning or at some point in this process I can pick the drive letter to be C: correct?
0  |
 CPU Speed
|
MSI DR4-A dvd writer
|
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
