partition drive letters

[AmarSingh]

is there a way that i can change the drive letter for a partition?? When i did a clean install on my new hard drive, xp automatically set the cd drives to d: and e: main partition to c: and other two partitions to f: and g:. I knw i can change the cd drives. Can i make the hard drive go c: d: e: ?

 

[AmarSingh]

ok i figured out how to do it suing disk management, but is this safe to do?? i wont confuse windows will i as long as i dont try to assign the same letter to two drives?? I dont have any programs installed on the partitions that I am going to change. I just want to swap them with my cd drives.

 

[Lonman]

Yeah, as long as you don't have anything installed on them you'll be okay. Even if you did, there's a mapping wizard that could set things right when you do the change. In your case, when you change your drive letters just cancel the mapping wizard.

 

[intoinfinity]

OK. . .my partitions switched letters for one reason or another. I think it may have been related to power surges and outages during an electrical storm. . .maybe not, though. All I know is everything was fine and when I came home a few nights ago after the power had been out the letters had changed.

I now have XP installed on D: and that partition is labeled as 'boot'. C: is my other partition and is labeled as 'system'

I wish it was as simple as changing the drive letters, but because my second partition (now C: ) is labeled as system it won't let me change it and I am also unable to change D:. In both cases I get an error message that tells me I can't change the letter of my system or boot drive.

Is there an easier way than a total format and clean install to fix this problem? I really don't feel like backing up 50 gb of data AGAIN.

Thanks for any help~

 

[intoinfinity]

anybody?

 

[Lonman]

I'm not quite sure what your problem is. Could you provide a screenshot to clarify what's going on? I think what your telling me is the your D: drive is showing up first in Windows Explorer? like this:
D:
C:
instead of
C:
D:
Is that what you mean?
Are you running a dual boot with another OS, which one? Are these two partitions on one drive, or two drives?

 

[intoinfinity]

OK. . .I had C: as my partition that included windows and all program files. D: included the bulk of my drive (both are on the same hard drive) and just contained bullshit. They are now switched.

In other words, my 10 gb partition that includes my windows installation switched from C: to D:. It is still recognized and runs fine after I repaired the installation, but I would like to return it to C: if possible.

I will attach a couple screen shots of what I have going for me.

 

[intoinfinity]

one more shot: of explorer

 

[Lonman]

In Windows Explorer highlight your C: drive. Do you see the files NTDETECT.COM, ntlr, boot.in, and i'm not sure what other ones, but basically XP's boot files in the root of that partition? I'll answer: yes. Basically, C: IS your boot volume.

My theory: During installation XP set itself on the paritition it wanted. Somehow the accident was made that you selected the D: partition for XP when it came up with the list of partitions to install on. I believe something along these lines happened during the initial installation, or during the repair installation you mentioned.

Is there an easier way than a total format and clean install to fix this problem? I really don't feel like backing up 50 gb of data AGAIN.

I don't know if it's possible to dual boot XP with itself, but that may be an alternative to what you suggest. Install XP on the C: partition, modify the bootloader when you're satisfied it's running ok on the C: partition, and format the D: partition.