Changing 7 drive letter.

1nfected · 27 Sep 2010

Hi, firstly, i apologize if this has been discussed before.

I followed the guide posted here to dual boot XP & 7. All's working fine now. I can boot into both the OS without any problems.

However, i've noticed that which ever OS i boot into, shows itself as installed on the C: drive. When in XP, 7 shows up on E: drive & when in 7, XP shows up on D: drive. I wanna change this. When i installed 7, i chose the D: drive &that's how i'd like it to remain.

So yeah, how do i go about changing the drive letter of 7 from C: to D:, so that it remains that way no matter which OS i boot into. Would it be safe to do this from Disk management in 7?

Note: Both the OS are installed on the same HDD.

I once again apologize if this has been asked before.

Cheers.

Night Hawk · 27 Sep 2010

When custom installing a second copy of the same version, same edition using the same installation disk the second copy of Windows having started up the installer while in Windows will shift the second copy to other then C. When booting into a dual with two different versions or even two separate editions of the same version the normal sight is seeing C while in one and the other install as a different drive letter since C is in use at the time.

The best advice often seen with any dual boot and the optical drive being D would be giving the second Windows E, F, G, etc. if no other drive is present and doing the same while booted in the other to the first now second seen there in the DM.

For changing it from C to something else that would be the opposite of wanting to see the registry edit for correcting a goof of Windows getting the wrong letter like D assigned rather then the default C. How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

Note that was directed at 2000, XP, and Server 2003 where this problem had been more apparent. Another guide covers what I was mentioning about how to Manage your drive letters in a dual-boot configuration

While the guide is older there for an XP/Vista dual boot the principles are the same as far as having the second OS always seeing the same drive while the Windows you are in at the moment is C.

boohbah · 27 Sep 2010

This tutorial by brink may be helpful to you
Drive letter resets!! Need Help!

1nfected · 27 Sep 2010

@Night Hawk: I din't quite understand all of that, but i guess what you're saying is that i can only change the drive letter of Win7 in XP to be D: instead of E:, right?
I've already done that in XP. I guess i'll have stick with what i got for now.

@boohbah It suggests i shouldn't be doing that

Thanks a lot for your help guys =)

Bare Foot Kid · 27 Sep 2010

Hello 1nfected, welcome to Seven Forums!

It's a very bad idea to change drive letters of installed OSs as installed programs/app that are installed will 'look' for the original drive letter and not finding it will cause serious issues, I would not do it, disk management will even warn you not to.

Night Hawk · 27 Sep 2010

If you custom install programs to folders created on any drive or partition other then C and then change the letter for that particular volume as Bare Foot Kid is trying to explain there the program(s) will likely fail to run. Changing the C status for the Windows you are booted into to something can lead to other types of problems.

Here when setting up a dual boot with the host as C the second will typically F or G reserving the D and E letters for a pair of optical drives. When booted into the second OS the host is then either F or G while the D and E are still applied to the exact same dvd drives keeping things universal regardless of which I booted into at the time.

gregrocker · 27 Sep 2010

You can't change an OS drive letter at all.

If you wanted to have Win7 another drive letter I believe you would have to install it from XP so that XP holds C.

Night Hawk · 27 Sep 2010

gregrocker said:

You can't change an OS drive letter at all.

If you wanted to have Win7 another drive letter I believe you would have to install it from XP so that XP holds C.

Says who? Generally you wouldn't see that as an option in the Disk Management while a problematic installation where Windows sees itself as D and not C has to be corrected. How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

Even through the registry edit outlined there however it was never found reliable.

That was a problem when seeing a second copy of the exact same edition of the same version of Windows custom installed to a second primary or separate drive while the first host was still plugged in if across two drives. Since C was already in use the second copy grabbed the next available being D.

XP was certainly more prone for that problem however since a second 64bit RC install last year never ran into that while two XP installs did some years back.

gregrocker · 28 Sep 2010

Night Hawk said:

gregrocker said:

You can't change an OS drive letter at all.

If you wanted to have Win7 another drive letter I believe you would have to install it from XP so that XP holds C.

Says who? Generally you wouldn't see that as an option in the Disk Management while a problematic installation where Windows sees itself as D and not C has to be corrected. How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

Even through the registry edit outlined there however it was never found reliable.

That was a problem when seeing a second copy of the exact same edition of the same version of Windows custom installed to a second primary or separate drive while the first host was still plugged in if across two drives. Since C was already in use the second copy grabbed the next available being D.

XP was certainly more prone for that problem however since a second 64bit RC install last year never ran into that while two XP installs did some years back.

I clearly wasn't referring to a slipped drive letter, which we help repair here regularly using Paragon Rescue CD to change the drive letter back to correct one in registry. Paragon Rescue -change drive letters

The OP wanted to change his OS drive letter to one he likes better. That is never an option without completely borking his OS. Every time someone has been incorrectly given the go-ahead to try it here, (s)he has to reinstall.

I believe the way it needs to be done if OP wants to assign a drive letter is to make that letter available next in line, then install Win7 from the other OS rather than booting the installer. It may not work even then as Win7 decides what letter it wants to be.

Night Hawk · 28 Sep 2010

Well that "slipped drive letter" as you call it would be the method for changing the volume information in the system registry itself only reversing a repair rather then performing one. And that's where you would lilkely run into problems like trashing the installation even making it unbootable since Windows always defaults to C by intentional design.

The Paragon Rescue cd simply is another means of repair not customization in that effect. The custom install to another drive or partition of the same edition while booted in the first install would be the only way to offset that to see D instead of C when later booting into the second copy. The unintentional change to the default is how to see that occur.

I think the one point everyone here is pointing to is that this type of customization will only lead to problems. The option for changing drive letters to begin has always been intended for secondary drives/partitions not the active version you are booted into at the moment wherever that is located.

As far as changing the second install's drive letter while booted in the first or vice versa you can use any letter presently available other then A and B which are always designed for Floppy drives regardless if none is present which in most cases these days none are!

If you are in XP, Infected, you first would need to see which letter is taken by the optical drive. If D is taken the next is E, F, G, and so forth. If you want 7 set as Z you can change it to that while booted in XP. The practicality however generally suggests D for optical or E while F, G tend to be used for second OSs.