Problems with driver letter after partitions changed

Hello everyone,

This is my first post in this forum. I am glad I found it!

Well, I am having trouble booting my Windows 7 after I've made some changes to my disk partitions. Here is what I've done:

Before my changes, I had the following:

Hard Disk: 500 GB partitioned as follows:

• Partition 1: Windows XP (boot)
• Partition 2: Windows 7
• Partition 3: My data

My Win7 used to have letter C: as system drive and everything worked fine. I then decided to remove Windows XP from my machine so I deleted partition 1 and used Linux Parted Magic to reorganize them so I have now:

• Partition 1: Windows 7
• Partition 2: My data

The problem was I forgot to flag WIN7 partition as "boot" and had problems to boot. Until I figure it out I tried to boot using Win7 DVD and performed a couple "Repair startup problems". Only after I used Parted Magic to flag it as boot partition I could get a boot loader repair done.

Now, my problem: When I boot Win7, it displays a message "Preparing your desktop" for 5 minutes and after that it displays a blank desktop (I can call Task Manager). It also says it could not find my profile. By opening a Command Prompt window here is my surprise: driver letter is changed to "D:"! Probably it is not finding anything because Win7 was installed with system partition as C.

I don't understand why this is happening. Letter C does not seem to be used by anyone. Anyone knows how to solve it?

PS: If I boot with Win7 DVD and open a command prompt window, I see system partition with letter "C:"

Thanks in advance,

João Pedro

First of all , just get a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html , and dont use parted magic or gparted in this time. As windows 7 is installed in your machine, and just bootloader is missing, it will add it.

Your problem was that your windows 7 bootloader was installed in your xp partition, and it is deleted alongwith xp.

If it is still not working, open command prompt and type "DISKPART' and enter.
At diskpart prompt, type "list disk" and enter.
As you have only one disk, it will show Disk 0. Now tyoe "list partition" and enter.
Type "select partition 1" (if it matches with your windows 7 partition), there will be a messege that partition 1is now selected.
Type "active" and enter to set it active.

In addition to the "Startup Repair" mentioned by Arc, you may also need to do a "Repair Install" ... meaning after booting to 7 (as best as you can) run the Install DVD from Windows 7: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

Cheers!
Robert

iseeuu said:

In addition to the "Startup Repair" mentioned by Arc, you may also need to do a "Repair Install" ... meaning after booting to 7 (as best as you can) run the Install DVD from Windows 7: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

Cheers!
Robert

Click to expand...

Hi Robert! I am greatful to you, friend! You solved my problem to dual boot with ubuntu. Now I am wondering and so asking you that if a desktop is not accessible, is it possible to run a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html ? I knew that it is to be started when I am in windows 7. (Please dont take it otherwise , friend! I honor your efficiency, and its just a query to enhance my knowledge.)

Arc said:

iseeuu said:

In addition to the "Startup Repair" mentioned by Arc, you may also need to do a "Repair Install" ... meaning after booting to 7 (as best as you can) run the Install DVD from Windows 7: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

Cheers!
Robert

Click to expand...

Hi Robert! I am greatful to you, friend! You solved my problem to dual boot with ubuntu. Now I am wondering and so asking you that if a desktop is not accessible, is it possible to run a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html ? I knew that it is to be started when I am in windows 7. (Please dont take it otherwise , friend! I honor your efficiency, and its just a query to enhance my knowledge.)

Click to expand...

Sure Arc, questions are always welcome, my friend!

If I read what jpnascim wrote correctly: "Now, my problem: When I boot Win7, it displays a message "Preparing your desktop" for 5 minutes and after that it displays a blank desktop (I can call Task Manager)." he says he can open a command prompt. If so he should be able to run "Setup" from the DVD and complete the "Repair Install". No promises though, may not work and he may need to try something else. Hopefully the "Repair Install" will correct the drive letter problem and give access to 7 again. He cannot change the drive letter of the Windows 7 partition from the Windows 7 partition.

Cheers!
Robert

iseeuu said:

Sure Arc, questions are always welcome, my friend!
He cannot change the drive letter of the Windows 7 partition from the Windows 7 partition.

Cheers!
Robert

Click to expand...

So another one, please.
Can Free Download Partition Wizard help to change drive letter without changing or destroying settings (as it is bootable, and doesnt touch the data inside the partitions) ?

Arc said:

iseeuu said:

Sure Arc, questions are always welcome, my friend!
He cannot change the drive letter of the Windows 7 partition from the Windows 7 partition.

Cheers!
Robert

Click to expand...

So another one, please.
Can Free Download Partition Wizard help to change drive letter without changing or destroying settings (as it is bootable, and doesnt touch the data inside the partitions) ?

Click to expand...

Good question. Windows has its own rules about assigning and saving drive letter identification. Other programs often rely on the BIOS to set the order of drives / partitions and give them letters. For example, I can assign drive letters to my data partitions however I wish. But if I boot to the Repair CD and use the command prompt to start "Diskpart", Diskpart will assign drive letters based on how drives and partitions line up in the BIOS, and may not be the same as what I have in Windows. So I do not know what drive letter Partition Wizard will use or if changing it will have any effect on how Windows assigns the drive letter.

One other possibility would be to use Partition Wizard to create a new "Primary" partition in front of the current Windows 7 partition and copy the contents of the Windows 7 partition to the new partition. Possibly by marking the new partition "Active", Windows would recognize it as the C: drive and be happy again? I don not know for sure ...

Cheers!

iseeuu said:

use the command prompt to start "Diskpart", Diskpart will assign drive letters based on how drives and partitions line up in the BIOS

Cheers!

Click to expand...

I suggested Diskpart , thinking that as he has deleted the primary partition (active and having boot flag, too) diskpart may fix it

But I think men are to be a bit more concerned about their MBR while trying to having or to getting rid of dual booting between two windows os

iseeuu said:

One other possibility would be to use Partition Wizard to create a new "Primary" partition in front of the current Windows 7 partition and copy the contents of the Windows 7 partition to the new partition. Possibly by marking the new partition "Active", Windows would recognize it as the C: drive and be happy again? I don not know for sure ...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Having a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html in the new active (c) partition (space for the partition is already there, as after deletion of xp the partition is neither formatted to a new one nor merged with another one)..... and then copying the documents from the other drive (where the previous installation was)..... Workable ?

Arc said:

iseeuu said:

One other possibility would be to use Partition Wizard to create a new "Primary" partition in front of the current Windows 7 partition and copy the contents of the Windows 7 partition to the new partition. Possibly by marking the new partition "Active", Windows would recognize it as the C: drive and be happy again? I don not know for sure ...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Having a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html in the new active (c) partition (space for the partition is already there, as after deletion of xp the partition is neither formatted to a new one nor merged with another one)..... and then copying the documents from the other drive (where the previous installation was)..... Workable ?

Click to expand...

Yes, I could see how that might work, especially if a new clean install was important...

iseeuu said:

Yes, I could see how that might work, especially if a new clean install was important...

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot

hello Arc,

thanks for your response. Well, in fact I've already ran "startup up repair" and bootloader seems to be repaired now as my Win7 partition is found and boot sequence is initiated.

Problem is that, for some reason, Win7 now assigns letter D: to its own system partition and this used to be C: (before I modified the partitions and everything was fine). This is preventing Win7 to boot up correctly. Plaase, see my first post.

Thanks,

João Pedro

iseeuu said:

In addition to the "Startup Repair" mentioned by Arc, you may also need to do a "Repair Install" ... meaning after booting to 7 (as best as you can) run the Install DVD from Windows 7: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

Cheers!
Robert

Click to expand...

Hi Robert,

Ok I will try that when I get home...

thanks,

Arc said:

Having a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html in the new active (c) partition (space for the partition is already there, as after deletion of xp the partition is neither formatted to a new one nor merged with another one)..... and then copying the documents from the other drive (where the previous installation was)..... Workable ?

Click to expand...

Space from my previous Windows XP partition was already merged with my DATA partition. Any Win7 install procedures I will execute will be on my current Win7 partition....

Hi guys,

Do you think the following might help?

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...etters-multi-boot-xp-vista-w7.html#post148426

Maybe problem is within Win7 registry or boot loader entries....

jpnascim said:

Hi guys,

Do you think the following might help?

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...etters-multi-boot-xp-vista-w7.html#post148426

Maybe problem is within Win7 registry or boot loader entries....

Click to expand...

Well ... it is worth a try ... I have no experience with this however.

First I would suggest you try the "Repair Install", use a command prompt from the windows desktop to access the DVD and run setup.

If that does not work, try something else ... ?

Cheers!

Well, problem is solved! I had to try a couple things until I got to the solution:

1) Downloaded "Partition Saving" as described in http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...etters-multi-boot-xp-vista-w7.html#post148426

I tried to use option "Update Windows 2000/XP/Vista Registry " but it did not offer me to change letter to C. It only showed D and E. So, I aborted this solution.

2) Tried to boot win7 as far as I could (until I got to the empty desktop) and tried to start Win7 setup.exe from DVD in order to run a "Recover Installation" as it was suggested. It kept telling me that it could not find "setup.exe" (and every other executable I tried, even though they were there). I aborted this solution also.

3) Now, with the solution that worked:
Doing some research I learned that Win7 (and Vista) keep track of assinged drive letters to each partition in the registry. More precisely at: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]

I had to boot in safe mode (as my win7 install would not let me run regedit.exe) and cleared everything there in that key. The concept is to let Windows discover partitions by itself again and reassign letters again.

I rebooted my machine and DONE!

More of this procedure (with detailed explanation) at:

Multibooters, Vista Dual and Multibooting - Drive Letter Problems

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and help!

João Pedro

jpnascim said:

Well, problem is solved! I had to try a couple things until I got to the solution:

1) Downloaded "Partition Saving" as described in http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...etters-multi-boot-xp-vista-w7.html#post148426

I tried to use option "Update Windows 2000/XP/Vista Registry " but it did not offer me to change letter to C. It only showed D and E. So, I aborted this solution.

2) Tried to boot win7 as far as I could (until I got to the empty desktop) and tried to start Win7 setup.exe from DVD in order to run a "Recover Installation" as it was suggested. It kept telling me that it could not find "setup.exe" (and every other executable I tried, even though they were there). I aborted this solution also.

3) Now, with the solution that worked:
Doing some research I learned that Win7 (and Vista) keep track of assinged drive letters to each partition in the registry. More precisely at: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]

I had to boot in safe mode (as my win7 install would not let me run regedit.exe) and cleared everything there in that key. The concept is to let Windows discover partitions by itself again and reassign letters again.

I rebooted my machine and DONE!

More of this procedure (with detailed explanation) at:

Multibooters, Vista Dual and Multibooting - Drive Letter Problems

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and help!

João Pedro

Click to expand...

We are very glad you found a solution that worked for you! And thanks for posting back. You are appreciated!

Happy surfing!
Robert