Windows 7 - Change drive letter for presumable needed boot disk

Windows 7, 32 bit, 12 partitions on 3 hdd's, Windows 7 on C:

When migrating to Windows 7 I first tried to update my Vista which I had used happily for 2 years. Installation went fine, but there were too many problems after.

So I bought a new 1 GB hdd and installed Windows 7 there from scratch. It is on a partition with drive letter C.

I copied most of my old partitions to the new hdd, went fine.

When trying to delete one of the old hdd's with EASEUS Partition Master Home 4.1.1 manager software, there is one partition on it (which once before was called C, then successfully renamed to Z ) which I can't delete. I has on it the following folders:
$RECYCLE.BIN
Boot
System Volume Information (locked)
-->and files:
BOOTSECT.BAK
bootmgr

They are only 30,5 MB in size. So I resized the partition to 1 GB.
EASEUS characterizes it as Status = System, Pri/Log = Primary. Windows Disc manager characterizes it as System, Active, Primary Partition.

My question is: Can I change the drive letter from Z to B without risking the whole system to be unbootable? (and maybe never be bootable again?)
When trying I just get the usual Windows warning.

I would be most grateful for an answer explaning what and why or why not.

Mick

Hello Mick,

Welcome to 7 Forums.

Could you post a pic of Disk management. Info here if needed. A Preferred Method of Uploading/Posting Screen Shots

Gary

timmendorf.. first download a wimpe disk or create one.

have it on a dvd or flash disk ready to boot (first test it boots)...

if so, then yes, you can start playing around... change it to b from z just a drive letter should be fine yup.

If system becomes unbootable.. its NOT permanent at all, just needs some manual typing to fix (from the aforementioned wimpe disk).. worst case scenario would be to move the bootmanager manually to your new C , then u cud delte that partition + have the boot active system in right place. but anyway, id recommend my scripts for that but I dont think im releasing them as open source after all, as I got no feedback at all from this forum members, which I would of appreciated.

Ayway, as long as you have that wimpe disk, and it fails I guess I can help you as long as u have internet to come and ask again n explain what went wrong.

toodles

actually nvm...

but hint: boot with wimpe , then go to your new C ,

I build a 'mikepe' with my program I wrote (which has bootrec.exe as well),

so i run bootrec /mbr (so i guess forget this option)
( i think it will work without this anyway.. if not OOPS.. you can make a wimre from your installation, again my program SUCK does this all for me )

run from \windows\boot
bootsect /nt60 all /force

go to old C (Z

attrib -s -h
del *.* and/or format it.

your wimpe disk is X:
copy files from X: as explained in this file i give you

build the bcd on your new C:

off you go.

Thanks, Gary,
here you are.

Mick

@ Solar
Thanks to you too.
Whats is a "wimpe disk"? Do I have to buy any programs from Symantec to create one?
Mick

That Z: partition won't delete because it's active system partition holding the MBR for Windows 7.

You should have unplugged other drives before reinstalling Windows 7

First, mark C active in Disk Management.

Now unplug DISK0 so MBR can be recovered into C where it belongs. Either plug C: HD into that cable or set it as first HD to boot (after DVD) in BIOS.

Now boot into the Windows 7 DVD and run Startup Repair 3 separate times as it has multiple issues to fix including rewriting the MBR to C.

Now you can plug Z: HD back in but may need to use free Partition Wizard CD to delete Z. Boot into Partition Wizard, right click Z, delete. You may also need PW to set C active earlier.

no lol. You could buy my program and be eternally happy for 12 bucks or so... but come back for that when you get another boot problem one day kiddo (don't think it iwll be releasable for another month as Iam converting from open source scripts to native binaries)

let's see, just push f8 , and get into the recovery environment, then get to the command prompt, from then non you can do the instructions I said, but try it the other way first; to a person with light knowledge of the boot procedure, it feels more secure than typing out things manually... sigh sometimes I miss the days of dos

Thanks a lot guys.
I'll try and come back.

Mick

Well, guys, I'm back.
@gregrocker: Thank you very much. It worked perfectly. I got rid of the useless little partition.

Mick

Great news, Mick.

Can I ask how many times you had to run Startup Repair to re-write the MBR?

Did Z: HD delete/format after replugging with Disk Management, or PW?