Drives all Mess UP

[niteghost]

Reformatted my Primary Partition C:/ and install XP Pro. and it well well , except some issues with some of the Drivers NOT installed. Instead of locating the drivers from the Manufacturer website, "silly " me, I thought Xp Prof. was NOT installed "right ". So, I did another Reformat and Reinstalled and the result is " Disastorous "

Now my Drives are all mess up: C:/ >> F:/ ( Primary Partition )

D:/ >> C:/ ( Second Partition )

E: >> D: ( DVD -RW Drive )

F: >> E ( CD Drive )

BTW, I already went to Disk Management , and try to Change F:/ ( my Primary Drive ) . Windows won't let me, saying " system Boot Volume cannot be change " .

How do I reassign my Drives back to Default, without Reinstalling XP again.

Thanks

Edited June 24, 2005 by niteghost

[firefoxthebomb]

I had something like t his happen before, worked on it for a bit and the only thing I could think of to fix it was to format and reinstall.

[Siginet]

There are programs which will help you change the system drive letter. I don't remember which app it was though. But there is a way to fix it I am sure.

[Aegis]

I think that the PartitionMagic emergency disk had a tool to change system drive letters.

[tguy]

You could try Microsoft's own diskpart.exe utility to see if it will help you but I'm afraid to get it repaired correctly you will have to format and reinstall.

The good news is that using the information on this forum it should take less than a day to be back up and running.

[niteghost]

You could try Microsoft's own diskpart.exe utility to see if it will help you but I'm afraid to get it repaired correctly you will have to format and reinstall.

The good news is that using the information on this forum it should take less than a day to be back up and running.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is running for a couple of days now, but I thought it will be easier if there is another way instead of Reformatting and reinstalling. Either at the DOS or BIOS level. I think I have to go to correct that. The danger of messing around with that is one will not be able to BOOT later, cause U are messing around with the System Volume or Bot Volume.

Let me investigate into the Software, Thanks guys!

Edited June 24, 2005 by niteghost

[bilemke]

You could try Microsoft's own diskpart.exe utility to see if it will help you but I'm afraid to get it repaired correctly you will have to format and reinstall.

The good news is that using the information on this forum it should take less than a day to be back up and running.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is running for a couple of days now, but I thought it will be easier if there is another way instead of Reformatting and reinstalling. Either at the DOS or BIOS level. I think I have to go to correct that. The danger of messing around with that is one will not be able to BOOT later, cause U are messing around with the System Volume or Bot Volume.

Let me investigate into the Software, Thanks guys!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can tell you, BIOS and windows Dirve Management wont help this one.. There are too many tings pointing to F: as the boot partition and the location of default program in windows and windows fodler itself. Partition Magic used to be able to to do this.. Maybe still.. Best way is to reinstall.. Atleast the primary partition. You may want to try and hide the secondary partition from windows setup to prevent it from using the wrong partition as the boot partition.

[dirtwarrior]

Format primary HD and reinstall. Some resident virus will mimic this bebavior. I just finally got rid of one that would run and hide even tho my virus scan says it finds and deletes it. If indeed you do have a bad virus (lets hope not) that cant be deleted .

1. shut down puter

2. unplug memory modules for a few seconds

3. put them back in

4. lastly do a LLF

This is drastic but some viruses and other things like them take up residence in puter and dont like to move, and wont come out in the conventional means. Finding,booting into safe mode and deleting it.

If this is off topic Sorry and the Mod can delete it

[^_^]

yep, format and re-install

otherwise all the crap in the windows registry will point to the F drive

ever heard of more BSOD than you can imagine?

[niteghost]

Thanks Guys for the "Suggestion ", and the reason I am NOT Reformatting and reinstalling XP is because I do NOT really " Learn " anything except NOT to "mess ' around to much and all U learn is " reformatting and reinstalling "

If Push comes to shove I will reformat and reinstall.

Here I would like to share this , haven'y try it yet, ( cause I am @ my Girlfriend Puter, typing this )a guy have successfully Swap his Drives by editing the registry , witout Reformattiing and reinstalling :

***************

Forgot exactly where I googled this from, but it worked for me in the same circumstances:

This procedure swaps drive letters for drives C and D. If you do not need to swap drive letters, simply name the \DosDevice\letter: value to any new drive letter not in use.

1. Make a full system backup of the computer and system state.

2. Log on as an Administrator.

3. Start Regedt32.exe.

4. Go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key.

5. Click MountedDevices. On the Security menu, click Permissions. Check to make sure Administrators have full control. Change this back when you are finished with these steps.

6. Quit Regedt32 and start Regedit.exe Go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key.

7. Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for "\DosDevices\C:".

8. Right-click \DosDevices\C:, and then click Rename.

9. Rename it to an unused drive letter "\DosDevices\Z:". (This will free up drive letter C: to be used later.)

10. Find the drive letter you want changed. Look for "\DosDevices\D:".

11. Right-click \DosDevices\D:, and then click Rename.

12. Rename it to the appropriate (new) drive letter "\DosDevices\C:".

13. Click the value for \DosDevices\Z:, click Rename, and name it back to "\DosDevices\D:".

14. Quit Regedit and start Regedt32.

15. Change the permissions back to the previous setting for Administrators (this should probably be Read Only).

16. Restart the computer.

********* JUST MY WAY OF GIVING BACK ***** niteghost

Edited June 25, 2005 by niteghost

[bilemke]

Thanks  Guys  for the "Suggestion  ",  and the reason I am NOT  Reformatting  and reinstalling  XP  is because I do  NOT  really "  Learn  "  anything  except NOT to "mess '  around  to  much  and  all U learn is  "  reformatting  and reinstalling  "

If  Push comes  to shove  I will reformat  and  reinstall.

  Here I would like to  share this , haven'y try it  yet,  (  cause I am @  my Girlfriend  Puter, typing  this    )a guy have  successfully  Swap his Drives  by editing the registry ,  witout Reformattiing  and  reinstalling  :

niteghost

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The problem is not changing what windows sees as the current drive letter.. It is all the other changes in the registry that need to be changed to match. I had to fight this problem many times with my unattended cds. I have 2 Raid Arrays with 2 partitions each on them. Plus, a floppy drive that has a USB card reader build in.. I have to unplug the 2nd raid array and USB card reader (internal) every time I reinstall windows to gurantee it doesnt try to associate C: with a partition on the 2nd raid array or one of the drives that windows sees in the USB card reader.. Another example is if you have a secondary IDE controller (raid or otherwise) and have a zip-100 internal drive (i dont have one buy have seen this case). Windows setup will see the zip drive before the secondary IDE controlelr and your HDs on it. So, it assigns the lettter C: to the zip drive and starts with D for the HDs. Since it remembers from setup, the resulting windows install will be installed to your HD on D:\windows.

Format and reinstall is the best way to date, that I have found, to resolve the issue. Partition Magic used to work great in 9x for this as it really did do a good job of handling all the registry entries. I have not used it in a while (no 9x and no other use for the program as I have found freeware better for doing partition changes) but, I would start with a current version if you were to try anything to do this properly.

" reformatting and reinstalling "

Yes, too many people suggest that without knowing.. You are right to look first, you will learn more (even if unrelated to the problem). Anyway, good luck in whatever you find out and choose to do.

[DonDamm]

Don't want to sound too much like an echo here, but this is an artifact of the way you managed the second install. When you "reformatted" the what was then the C:\ or system partition, if you did so by removing the partition and then recreating it as I did once, then Windows will "see that newly created partition, not as the first one, but as the last one! (that's why it became F:\). It uses ARC which is a naming convention (check your boot.ini and you'll see an example of this!). The drives then get named in the order of that convention.

The system drive is for all practical purposes, locked. That's why folks have made the suggestion of re-installing becasue only that way can you get the re-ordering of the drives that you want.

MS doesn't explain this very well, in fact, not at all. Since so many folks have only one drive - C: it doesn't make a difference too often. It's when you start learning, but don't have all the information that things get screwed up! Years ago I wish that the install routine had been kind enough to let me know that Win2000 wouldn't install beyond the 8GB barrier! Well, it installed alright, just wouldn't function! MS just never bothered to indicate that in the install routine which would've been easy enough to do! Grrrrr.

[bilemke]

Don't want to sound too much like an echo here, but this is an artifact of the way you managed the second install. When you "reformatted" the what was then the C:\ or system partition, if you did so by removing the partition and then recreating it as I did once, then Windows will "see that newly created partition, not as the first one, but as the last one! (that's why it became F:\). It uses ARC which is a naming convention (check your boot.ini and you'll see an example of this!). The drives then get named in the order of that convention.

The system drive is for all practical purposes, locked. That's why folks have made the suggestion of re-installing becasue only that way can you get the re-ordering of the drives that you want.

MS doesn't explain this very well, in fact, not at all. Since so many folks have only one drive - C: it doesn't make a difference too often. It's when you start learning, but don't have all the information that things get screwed up! Years ago I wish that the install routine had been kind enough to let me know that Win2000 wouldn't install beyond the 8GB barrier! Well, it installed alright, just wouldn't function! MS just never bothered to indicate that in the install routine which would've been easy enough to do! Grrrrr.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorta true.. If I put my cd in right now.. Not format or delete the parition I have windows on as C:\ and start setup with a USB memory card reader pluged in or put something writeable (not cd-rom) on my onboard ide controller, it will call that c: even if I already had a install of windows on C:\windows on another partition that setup can see.

[^_^]

I'll just sit here and watch the poor guy educate himself for a good while before he reformats

[bilemke]

I'll just sit here and watch the poor guy educate himself for a good while before he reformats

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

True.. Maybe I wil do the same.. He might run into a way I have never found or tried and it will be a lessor learned for me.