drive letters switched after changing motherboard

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  1. Posts : 13
    windows 7 ultimate
       #1

    drive letters switched after changing motherboard


    I'm in the middle of re-installing windows 7 right now, and migrating my drive info over, but I'd prefer to solve this. I purchased an updated asus p5n-d motherboard (from using a not very good biostar p4m890-7se). When I installed my sata hard drive that already had a copy windows 7 working and activated, I found that it wouldn't boot. So, I used win7pe and booted to find that the drive letters have been messed up. The 100 meg system reserve was now c: instead of z:, c: was now f:, d: was now e:. I tried everything. I thought I could use the diskmgmt.msc tool in win7pe but quickly realized that's just a virtual disk and wouldn't write the info to windows 7. I thought I could import the registry and use the regedit on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices but couldn't find it on the screwed up drive (it's a *.pol file isn't it)....I'm stuck. I decided to reinstall windows 7 on a new drive, use sportmau suite to copy over the information, and then use windows setting and migration tool copy most of the setting onto the new install. I'd like to solve this though. Is there anyway to boot, or re-assign the drive letters on the drive now that they're messed up. Diskpart?

    Any ideas are good ideas.

    thanks,

    J>
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 13,354
    Windows 7 Professional x64
       #2

    Welcome!

    Try a startup repair.

    You may need to mark the Windows partition as active before the repair will find your installation.

    Partition - Mark as Active
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 13
    windows 7 ultimate
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Thanks for the welcome. You know, it's one of the first things I tried...and failed to mark the partition active though (it failed to repair so I wonder if the active partition would help). How can I do that if I can't get to the partition? Can I do it in windows 7 repair disk?
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 13,354
    Windows 7 Professional x64
       #4

    Yes, boot into the repair disc, and open up a command prompt.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 13
    windows 7 ultimate
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Ok. Almost there. I fixed part of this with diskpart. Set the drive as active, rebooted, it fixed the drive so now c: is c:.....but the z: which is the system reserved is still the wrong letter. So it won't boot. Crap. How can I change the drive letter on the 100 mb system reserved so it's z:


    Or can I use bootcfg and manually edit the entry so it points to the correct system reserved drive..
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 13,354
    Windows 7 Professional x64
       #6

    Why don't you delete the system reserved partition?

    System Reserved Partition - Delete
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 13
    windows 7 ultimate
    Thread Starter
       #7

    I'll try that. Right now I'm just doing a raw copy from the c: drive that work doesn't work, onto the drive (with windows 7 installed) that does, as a simple overwrite. I figure all of the boot info (plus all my files) should overwrite the working copy, and hopefully boot. Who knows? It's an experiment. Thanks for the information on deleting the system reserved. Again, I need to talk and bounce ideas off of people while I'm doing this. I come up empty sometimes (and frustrated) and it helps to have a fresh perspective.

    Thanks J.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 13
    windows 7 ultimate
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Used diskpart, deleted system reserve partition, made sure c: was the active partition. Now system repair can't find anything to repair. Tells me it can't fix automatically, and won't create a system reserved partition/volume. Aghhh.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 13,354
    Windows 7 Professional x64
       #9

    Don't just mark the C partition as active; mark whatever partition has Windows on it (usually the largest one) as active.

    Then run startup repair again.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 13
    windows 7 ultimate
    Thread Starter
       #10

    1 terrabyte disk.
    Divided as follows
    First 100 gig I set as C: (and marked as active)
    The rest was D: (storage)
    100 mb system reserved (now deleted).

    Neither startup repair, or bootrec will fix this for some reason. ;(
      My Computer


 
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