Windows 7: How to change drive letter for boot drive?

When you install an OS and start the setup from within another OS you'll never have the new OS installed onto "c:" if the old OS has itself on "c:".

Ah...you are right. The other times I did a dual install like this I installed both from DVD's. I guess I am stuck the way I am for the moment.

fafner

How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

Thank you for that link. I had been to that page before and was concerned that doing that would cause my system not to boot at all. I found out, however, that I had mistakenly installed 32 bit Windows 7 instead of 64 bit, so I was resigned to doing a reinstall anyway.

So I followed the instructions in that link and found something interesting that I thought others might like to see. After doing that I attempted to boot into Windows 7 and lo and behold, I got the Windows 7 splash screen, then wierdly, a message that said "preparing your desktop." The donut keep spinning for about 5 minutes and then I pale blue screen with "Windows 7,Build 7600, This is not genuine" in the bottom right hand corner. And, the donut kept spinning. I could access Task Manager or log off etc., but a real desktop never appeared. Due to time pressure, I logged off and went back to Vista where I now am. Later I will try to boot into Windows 7 again before I do an install of the x64 bit version.

If anyone has any thoughts on what is happeing I would love to hear them.

Thanks.

fafner

From the link. You can't just change the driver letter of an OS install.

Yes I can read. The interestsing thing is that I did it and it almost works....with OS's prior to Windows 7 I would never get as far as I did.

fafner

So I'm in the same boat. I bought a new drive, installed XP because I only had the Upgrade version of Win 7. Did the Custom install and the Boot Drive letter is "L". I tried the fixes discussed like the regedit one that ended up with the same blank blue screen with "Windows 7,Build 7600, This is not genuine" and I tried using the computer management route with the same error "The parameter is incorrect".

So is there a fix or do I have to live with the boot drive being the "L" drive?

There is no way to change the drive letter of an OS drive without risking failure. I tried it twice and failed twice; I won't try it again.

What you can do is pre-format your partitions and clear the way for it to take the letter C by assuring your optical drive is D in Disk Managment.

Never install an OS from the other OS unless necessary, always boot from the HD and apply a final formatting to assure it's ready for the OS.

I'm not trying to dual boot. The only reason I put XP on the drive is because I only had the Upgrade version of Win 7. I think it is a Win 7 issue in that it sees XP, Keeps it on C Drive while it looks for the 1st free letter to install Win 7. I'd think MS would be smarter than that. I wonder if I zapped it all, reformated the disk and then tryed to install Windows 7 upgrade without XP being on the disk if the install would ask for proof of XP like the original disk.

You didn't need XP to be installed to use Windows 7 Upgrade DVD.

It doesn't ask for proof of XP, only scans the HD to see any OS is installed before accepting the key, even if booted. There is a workaround given out by MS to install Upgrade if no OS is present.

So get the cleanest possible install by booting from the DVD, selecting Custom intall, and use Advanced drive tools to format before install. It will see the XP before formatting over it, accept your Upgrade key and install.