7even System partition letter change.

[Nonsens]

Hello everyone on theese awesome forums, another troll here!

The system:
Drive 1: vista boot loader, vista32, two partitions (vista on C, some stuff on D), both NTFS
drive 2: broken grub loader (never mind actually), one ntfs partition with some porn, games, and other usual stuff . named E.

so then, i copy the 7100 x64 distr into my flash drive, boot it, and install our beloved 7even into the drive 2. it does not ask me anything, write its boot loader to drive 1, lets me choose which OS to boot into each time... perfect. BUT(T):
7even named her own partition C, while drive 1 partitions became D and E. i swapped last two easily, using 7even's disk management utility. that's 1 of 3 and that's not enough. i really want 7even's partition to have the same letter as in vista. i even googled it, and didn't find any answers.
7even is still unconfigured, so it would not be a problem to reinstall it.
even more, if it's really necesarry, i can move all of drive 1's data somewhere else, so i can format it.
any help please please?

 

[zigzag3143]

Whata drive letter would you like win 7 to have? and vista??

Ken

 

[Nonsens]

Basically, i want my seven to be installed on drive 2, with its system partition named "E", just like it is in vista.

once again, if you want:
when i login to vista, i see: drive1{C;D}, drive2{E}, system vista partition is C, and that is RIGHT.
when i login to seven, i see: drive1{E;D}, drive2{C}, system seven partition is C, and that SUCKS.

what i want to see is:
i login to seven, i see drive1{C;D}, drive2{E}, system seven partition is E.

 

[zigzag3143]

7 sys part

Hey Nonsens

ALL win installs want to install to drive 0 partition 0 and they label it C: thats convention. that being said if there is some reason to want to (like you have vista in C on drive 0) when you boot from the 7 dvd it should ask you where to install ( at least the M$ dvds) and whether you want to upgrade (dont unless you have to) or do a custom install to a partition and give you the choices of where.

Ideally win 7 comes in an image (*.iso) and if you copy separate files you might be missing something on the flash drive.

There are ways to do it BUT WAIT! If you change your boot drive letter or partition it will probably not boot. Be careful. Backup first. One of the apps that will do it is Paragon disk manager suite 2009. There is a trial version but I believe not all the functions are alive in it.

Can you tell me what difference having 7 on E makes to you?

Ken

 

[Nonsens]

seems like you got me wrong. my 7even distr were downloaded from microsoft.com, it's perfect. and when i install it, i could only choose the destination partition (the only one on drive2), but could not choose which letter that partition should have, атв that's what i want to change.

you ask why?
because i don't want to have two ridiculously large "program files" folders on two different drives. in current situation, when i login into Seven, i cannot run almost any software from disk1partition1(E), because its internal links are made for disk C (from vista).
and as well, my music player likes the music to be on drive E, while in Seven, the music drive suddenly becomes C.
is my point clear now?

i believe Paragon disk manager will just broke my Seven installation. and re-instalation would not have any positive effect.

 

[pbcopter]

I have 4 partitions on a hard drive with three versions of Windows 7 (2 x64 and 1 x86) an a Vista x64. When each of them boot, they become C: and my data is stored on another drive G: so they all can access it. When I first install an operating system, I must relabel the data drive to G: ( I use G:, I don't know why). It all works fine.

 

[Nonsens]

well, all the vista software is hardly movable right now, and its an extensive way to solve the problem anyway. I'd like to find a perfect one.

 

[Barman58]

Although this would be possible in theory I personally believe that the amount of work required to achieve and more importantly to maintain this would be a difficult ongoing task.

This does not involve changing the drive used by the OS but pointing the system to a new location for the program files

The program files folder could be moved by editing the location in the second OS in the registry and as a backup' creating a Junction (symbolic Link) where it normally sits to also point to the new actual location.
This would need to be done before installing any programs, and tricks would be required to move the MS programs installed as part of the OS.

The programs would need to be installed on the second OS or a lot of registry edits performed

Certain programs, (the majority that have a custom install), allow you to specify the install location during setup, so these could be installed to the new location without issue.

The normal installs should work either through the registry changes or the redirect from the junction.

In addition to these changes you may need to do a similar thing to the programdata folders and the user appdata folders

The following link is a good starting point if you wish to investigate these techniques - although unless you are seriously short of disk space I would advise against it

How to move the WinSXS folder in Vista. a Single Point of Contact

 

[Nonsens]

Looks nice, thank you Barman!
What i am confused about, it that there is no way to just choose the destination partition letter before installing the OS. i clearly remember my last job, where about fifty computers (WinXP i think... maybe 2k) had their whole OS, and all program files on disk D. i hardly believe that admins made all the things you just listed it really looked more like a *very* custom installation. Isn't it possible?

 

[Barman58]

Hi,

There may well be a method of overriding the C when creating a slipstream install which was probably the method used by the admins you mention.

Also I believe if you install a separate install from within an existing install Ie install a separate Windows 7 install by running the setup.exe from within an existing Vista or 7 and selecting a new install not upgrade.

The logic behind this is I believe that as the C: drive is in use by the originating OS it cannot be allocated for the new OS, have not actually tried this so cannot confirm if this actually works with Windows 7 but the theory is at least plausible

 

[SIW2]

Hi,

Just to confirm what Barman58 said, if you install 7 from within an existing o/s - using a virtual drive , it will take the next available letter and not assign itself C.

 

[antalgebra]

Looks nice, thank you Barman!
What i am confused about, it that there is no way to just choose the destination partition letter before installing the OS. i clearly remember my last job, where about fifty computers (WinXP i think... maybe 2k) had their whole OS, and all program files on disk D. i hardly believe that admins made all the things you just listed it really looked more like a *very* custom installation. Isn't it possible?

Yes, it is possible in a large scale environment, they just performed the above tasks once (for each PC MFG type), took an Image, and imaged all the PC's. You should have one Programs file folder per OS-installed partition. Going against this grain would be, as said, difficult to maintain for an extended period of time.

 

[Snufffed]

Basically, i want my seven to be installed on drive 2, with its system partition named "E", just like it is in vista.

once again, if you want:
when i login to vista, i see: drive1{C;D}, drive2{E}, system vista partition is C, and that is RIGHT.
when i login to seven, i see: drive1{E;D}, drive2{C}, system seven partition is C, and that SUCKS.

what i want to see is:
i login to seven, i see drive1{C;D}, drive2{E}, system seven partition is E.

If you will change the HD so as Win7 (intsall to E is not on the same HD as Vista.
Vista will remain C:\ and Win7 will remain E:\

As you can see; C:\ is Vista and will remain that way untill I DELETE Vista.
L:\ will remain Win 7 untill I change that by removing Vista, then change my Boot drive to L:\ where it then will be master Boot drive, which will then become C:\ unless I want it to remain L:\ My mobo is a ASRock where I have the option using F10 to change my DEVICEs sequence to fit
how I boot.

N:\ Printer, Scanner MFC M:\ is empty card reader. Version is Win7 Ultimate 7137 which has been removed from lower right hand corner.

 

[antalgebra]

You may have answered this, but when you go to:

'Computer Management' -> storage -> Disk Management -> Right click (C: ) -> Change Drive letter and paths -> Change -> D:

Does this work for what you need?

 

[copernicus]

You really should go ahead and reinstall the programs through seven and not try to reuse them from the vista install.

Drive lettering is relative to the OS installed.

 

[Nonsens]

And what a nice orgy it could have been...

ok then, ill try to move everything to win7. btw, are you sure i won't have to re-install it after release?

oh, and a new idea! just wondering...
it it possible to make a virtual drive, hard-linked to another one? for example, drive X, mapped to disk1partition1, so that if i click on it, i see disc C, but named X? basically, its like assigning two letters to one drive - one actual (unchangeable), one dynamical. And if that possible, we can come to the next situation (let's forget the already existing software for now):

when i login to vista, i see: drive1{C and X;D}, drive2{E}, system vista partition is C, all the software were installed with the X letter.
when i login to seven, i see: drive1{X;D}, drive2{C and E}, system seven partition is C

and a thing about software options - we can also map the %userprofile% win7 link to the disk X, no?

i know i'm crazy, thank you

 

[Barman58]

Not sure what exactly you want to do with his (or even if this still works in Windows 7 ), but Windows has always had the "Subst" command which allows you to assign a drive letter to a folder either try Subst /? in a command prompt or have a look here ...

Map a Drive Letter to a Folder the Easy Way in Windows :: the How-To Geek

Edit
The command is present in 7 but I think it may only work in a command prompt

The application works in 7 in the GUI

 

[Nonsens]

lol, i have really forgotten how the subst command work
awesome. now all i have to do is to autorun "subst x: c:/" before any other autoruns happen. lets see how it works!

anyone knows what will happen if i install a program on that drive?