Solved Change letter of the boot drive or the system drive

[Layback Bear]

Contro we are all here to try and help. You can see by the posts we are somewhat confused. You are trying to do something as far as I know has not been done before with Windows 7 because their/there is no legal reason to do so. I know of no one who is going to try such a thing on their/there multi hard drive system in order to figure it out and take the chance of mucking up their/there own system. What you did using XP is of no concern. You have had some very good information given to you by some very experienced people (exclude me). It's up to you to take it or leave it. Having one Windows 7 on one computer at one time works for the rest of the world. From there/their you can do all the backup for emergency that you care to do. If networking is your concern one Windows 7 will take care of your needs. If you desire another complete computer for backup emergency needs all you have to do is install another paid for Windows 7 and install it on that another computer with the programs you desire or need. I'm done.
Have a good day.

 

[SIW2]

Let's clear this up.

Every time I install win7, I choose which o/s registry letter I want it to have.

There are several ways to do it - but it must be done during installation - not afterwards.

If you use windows setup.exe, it will always choose the first available drive letter, starting from C as A and B are traditionally reserved for floppies ( who has those nowadays - never mind ).

Therefore, if you install by booting the dvd - setup.exe cannot see any drive letters have been used - and it picks the first available - i.e. C.

If you run it from within an existing o/s - setup.exe is aware of the drive letters already assigned by your running o/s and will use the next available one.

So, if you only have one partition already with your running o/s called C - then run setup.exe from within that - your new installation will be D.

If you then have only C and D , running the setup.exe installer again - will give the new installation letter E and so on.


The way I do it is different and more flexible but too complicated to go into here.

 

[MilesAhead]

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.

I was under the impress this is the test system. Only he tests the same hardware profiles over time. But that's just my speculation. All I know is, once he gets that thing working, I'd hate to fix it if it blew up!!

 

[Britton30]

Contro has to answer all the questions which have been posed, he's avoiding them. As it is we are only speculating what he is trying to do. :sarc:

 

[MilesAhead]

He's probably too confused trying to remember the way he set all that stuff up. Sounds like the old switchboard where the operator had to stick a wire in.

 

[Contro]

Let's clear this up.

Every time I install win7, I choose which o/s registry letter I want it to have.

There are several ways to do it - but it must be done during installation - not afterwards.

If you use windows setup.exe, it will always choose the first available drive letter, starting from C as A and B are traditionally reserved for floppies ( who has those nowadays - never mind ).

Therefore, if you install by booting the dvd - setup.exe cannot see any drive letters have been used - and it picks the first available - i.e. C.

If you run it from within an existing o/s - setup.exe is aware of the drive letters already assigned by your running o/s and will use the next available one.

So, if you only have one partition already with your running o/s called C - then run setup.exe from within that - your new installation will be D.

If you then have only C and D , running the setup.exe installer again - will give the new installation letter E and so on.


The way I do it is different and more flexible but too complicated to go into here.

Nice indeed.
Nevertheless seems to be a legal problem.
Because of some posts.

 

[Contro]

Contro has to answer all the questions which have been posed, he's avoiding them. As it is we are only speculating what he is trying to do. :sarc:

Avoiding ? I am not avoiding really.
I have explained in my words the best I can.

 

[Contro]

He's probably too confused trying to remember the way he set all that stuff up. Sounds like the old switchboard where the operator had to stick a wire in.

Milesssssss

 

[gregrocker]

Contro, maybe you can try again to explain exactly what it is you want to do because I can't understand it at all.

Here's a start:

What I want to do is __________________________________________.

 

[Contro]

Contro has to answer all the questions which have been posed, he's avoiding them. As it is we are only speculating what he is trying to do. :sarc:

One thing is a little advantage when have the same system several times installed is to fight viruses. You can desinfect from a parallel system (equivalent to the use of a live cd).

I used this. I am not telling to be the best method.

 

[Contro]

Contro, maybe you can try again to explain exactly what it is you want to do because I can't understand it at all.

Here's a start:

What I want to do is __________________________________________.

What I want to do is install several times windows 7 on the same pc.

 

[gregrocker]

You need to have a separate license for each one.

How are you activating Win7? _____________________________

Is this for testing purposes? Yes ___ No ____

Please explain exactly why you want to have several Win7 installs on same PC:

__________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

 

[MilesAhead]

Hmm, could it be a numerology thing? 7 x 7 ?? heh heh

 

[edwar]

Greg if you install Windows on the same PC in different partitions you don't need a License for each install. It is on the same hardware. I can install Windows on the same hardware as many time I as I like. If you couldn't then no one could do a Reinstall of the OS. You can only boot from one install at a time so none of the installs are running at the same time as another.

If you Image the install drive you could then load that image on multiple hard drives connected to the same sytem and only have to activate it one time.

 

[gregrocker]

Edwar I am familar with the issue as it's been gone over many times before during the three years since beta.

When the Admins have weighed in there is never any variance given from one license per each Win7 installation.

What one can get away with in this case is different than what is legal, and acceptable in the Forums.

 

[Layback Bear]

Let me rattle my brain a little. If one installs Windows 7 on one hard drive and makes a image of that install and put it on 6 more hard drives in the same computer their/there could be a problem. How would one boot the PC without unplugging 6 hard drives. All Windows 7 installs are on drive C. My understanding is that is the problem the OP is having. He wants Windows 7 on several hard drives in the same computer all hooked up at the same time but with different drive letters so he can pick what hard drive to boot from. Why one would do that, I don't know.
My understanding is simple. One computer, one license and one Windows 7.
Post #41.
You are trying to do something as far as I know has not been done before with Windows 7 because their/there is no legal reason to do so.

 

[SIW2]

Plenty of people do it - testing purposes mainly.

He wants the drive letters to be consistent, whichever o/s he is booted into.

I dunno why this is causing so much interest. Seems a perfectly reasonable question to me.

Most of us have 3 or 4 o/s installed don't we?

Not necessarily the same one of course.

I have a few more than that atm, as I am updating my install media - I need to check I have done it right, so I install the updated versions - don't usually bother putting the key in just for that - could have up to 6 o/s installed at a time.

Because I have 16 or 17 drives - if they are different from every o/s I boot up - I won't know where anything is.

 

[Layback Bear]

If one bought 10 computers from HP all the exactly the same for a office and installed Windows 7 Home Premium on all computers how many license would he/she have to buy. I'm thinking 10. One computer with 10 hard drives with Windows 7 Home Premium is the same thing.

 

[gregrocker]

You can name each OS on the Boot Menu using EasyBCD and in it's drive name, and they could still all boot showing C as designed.

If the question is only how to install Win7 to another drive letter then it was answered here:

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.

And how to determine the exact letter was refined here:

If you run it from within an existing o/s - setup.exe is aware of the drive letters already assigned by your running o/s and will use the next available one.

So, if you only have one partition already with your running o/s called C - then run setup.exe from within that - your new installation will be D.

If you then have only C and D , running the setup.exe installer again - will give the new installation letter E and so on.

Just make sure the next drive letter you want chosen is available by removing it from wherever it exists before installing and substituting a replacement letter - remembering that you cannot change an OS drive letter after install without ruining it: Drive Letter - Add, Change, or Remove in Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums

 

[AddRAM]

Contro, maybe you can try again to explain exactly what it is you want to do because I can't understand it at all.

Here's a start:

What I want to do is __________________________________________.

What I want to do is install several times windows 7 on the same pc.

So do it, what`s the problem ?

Changing the drive letter ( which you can`t do) has no bearing on choosing the installation you want to boot into. You wouldn`t even see the letter yet. You would have to change the name on the boot list so you would know the difference.

Once again: YOU DO NOT SEE the drive letter til you boot into the system.
This last statement is for arguementive purposes to move the project along. Bit it`s probably true.