Solved Change letter of the boot drive or the system drive

[Britton30]

Yes, please explain proofs, ocium, SAT, etc.

 

[Contro]

Off Topic. Some years ago I made an authentic disaster but works.
Obviously I always try to work less. That's the point. Manage several systems is not my favourite thing. I do because I am traumatised with windows. Ejem.

What I did was :

Literally copy one partition files to another. Of a system !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then enter in the windows registry and modify every key pointing to the initial unit to the new unit where all the files were copied.

And works !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember some minor problems perhaps of hive keys or special misconfigurations that almost solves reinstalling that particular program.

Windows is a flexible environment.

 

[Contro]

Yes, please explain proofs, ocium, SAT, etc.

I have six systems :
System Ocium
System Proofs
etc.

SAT (excuse me) is the equivalent to Technical Assistance Support

I am from Canary Islandsssss !!!!!!!!!

 

[Britton30]

LOL! Maybe it's time to learn to clone a drive or partition.

 

[Contro]

You only really need one OS to do all of that. You would just have to have your work, other for ocium, etc on separate partitions and disks to access them from w7. If you have w7 Ultimate or Enterprise, you can install XP mode which is a XP OS in a VM.

The TAS (Technical Advice Service) tells me that professional version have that ability too.
But I am used to use VirtualBox.

I have seven disks at the present moment. And one of them is for systems.
Of course I use data disks.
But I spent all the weekend looking for software in softonic......
It's my trauma and my vicious....

 

[Contro]

LOL! Maybe it's time to learn to clone a drive or partition.

Yesssssssss.
I do with virtual machines. Ufffff . A little of peace.

Acronis can restore in hardware different, but I haven't try over a different letter.
Of course I can try, but I think is not a good solution. I remember when I try renaming the letter pointing to in the windows registry. It's a very very suffering work.

Perhaps I don't know enough this subject.
Of course I was thinking about clone windows 7.
But is it possible ?

I suppose i can clone partitions inside the same pc.

And clone partitions in the virtual machines of course.

What is the best way ?

 

[Contro]

I have an Acronis copy of the recently installed windows 7.

What will happen if I restore a copy over a different letter ?
If Windows 7 is indifferent to any other letter different from C: nothing may happen. No ?¿?¿?¿

 

[Britton30]

I'm no authority on partitioning. I think a clone would be an entire drive, I misspoke before.

 

[Contro]

me too no. I have no memory but I have tutorials. I use the live ubuntu cd for partitioning

I am not sure of this post
windows 7 - Reassigning drive letter for cloned system partition - Super User

because I have seen other post telling that the tric kb 233188 give problems with the license of windows 7

I prefer to wait a little more to listen more opinions.

 

[gregrocker]

Are you aware you must boot the Win7 installer for it to correctly install to C? If you run it from XP then C will be locked and unavailable.

Boot the installer now, follow these steps to Clean Install Windows 7. At the drive selection screen, choose the Win7 target partition, delete, recreate and format it, then click Next to begin install.

Win7 will be C when you are booted into it, XP will be C when you are booted into it. This is correct. Running Win7 installer from XP is not correct.

 

[Contro]

Are you aware you must boot the Win7 installer for it to correctly install to C? If you run it from XP then C will be locked and unavailable.

Boot the installer now, follow these steps to Clean Install Windows 7. At the drive selection screen, choose the Win7 target partition, delete, recreate and format it, then click Next to begin install.

Win7 will be C when you are booted into it, XP will be C when you are booted into it. This is correct. Running Win7 installer from XP is not correct.

I really thinks that must be other structures possible because I have seen posts in internet of several windows 7 installation in the same pc.

I have to fight to get that.
It's important for me.

 

[Contro]

Take this into consideration

Switching my Windows 7 Boot Disk from D to C with BCDBoot rather than BCDEdit - Scott Hanselman

 

[Contro]

One important caveat, W7 is not XP.
Any drive w7 is installed on will become the C;\ drive.

Can you reference with technical knowledge this point of view. Sorry, it's important for me.
Best Regards.

 

[Britton30]

My XPerience has shown w7 is much better. w7 has many drivers already loaded, runs faster, uses fewer resources, runs old software, or at least a lot of them, installs much faster, can "fix itself" many times, supports TRIM for SSDs, and on and on.
Many softwares which was fine in XP will destroy a w7 OS, two that come to mind are Spybot Search and Destroy and most Registry cleaning and defragging programs.

 

[gregrocker]

I really thinks that must be other structures possible because I have seen posts in internet of several windows 7 installation in the same pc.

I have to fight to get that.
It's important for me.

Then can you tell us exactly what you are confused about?

What "other structures" are you looking for? Maybe we can help you.

 

[Contro]

I wish install several times on the same pc windows 7 64 bits.
Assign the letter or change the letter possibly to some.
Proceeding.

1. Connect a new hard disk to my pc with partitions. Only that hard disk. Install in the partition C: the system and boot.

Note : Usually I install my systems in C: , D:, F: , I: , M: and N:

2. Install the second windows 7 system in the D: unit.

3. Connect a second hard drive to my pc with only one partition.
Install the third system in the F: unit

4. Connect a third hard drive to my pc with two partitions created. (g:, h
Install the fourth system in the I: unit

5. Connect a fourth hard drive to my pc with three partitions created (j:, k:, l
Install the fifth system in the M: unit

6. Install a sixth system in the N: unit.

Finish
Revise.
Always is necessary under xp reassign the correct unit to some systems.
The unit C: is definititely assigned and don't need to be varied

Note : Please consider put the link to the knowledge base of microsoft where is affirmed that w7 always see the installation partition as C:

 

[gregrocker]

It is possible to have another letter assigned to Win7 during install by running it's installer from another OS instead of booting it. This will lock out the drive letter which you are installing from and assign to the new install the next available letter.

But there is no good reason I've come across to do this. Why do you want to try?

 

[DeaconFrost]

Is not possible to install twice w7 in the same pc ?

Again, what are you trying to achieve? There is absolutely no reason to run the same OS multiple times on the same computer.

In fact, I'll argue that multi-booting is dead. Virtualize XP if you need it. Simplify your setup. The screenshot you posted gave me a migraine! SImplify and you'll thank me later.

 

[MilesAhead]

Sounds like Contro was manually performing the task that some program migration utilities tried to do in the past. I never used them and can't remember the names now. But I remember reading the ad copy for a couple of them. They copied all your programs to another partition with a different letter and made the changes in the registry to substitute the new locations. Word was it required a lot of manual tweaking afterward.

But I can see if there's very hardware specific testing that a VM just ain't the same as real hardware. If Contro got all this to work he must know something about what he's doing and has a reason.

Better him than me though.

 

[DeaconFrost]

But I can see if there's very hardware specific testing that a VM just ain't the same as real hardware.

That's when you pull and swap drives to eliminate and isolate. Or, you use a test system.