Solved Changing Hard disk Letter through Disk Manament

[Garciamk4]

Hey guys quick question

1. I have a 1TB Drive Partitoned in half C:5OOGB and F:500GB Now I recently Purchased another 1TB Drive and its already setup.

2. Id like to Change the Drive letter F: wich would be the Second Partition of The Drive C: and assign this Letter to the New Drive.

3.The main reason for this is because Im currently Running FS In the F: Partition of the Same Drive but instead would like to run it in the new drive.

All Registry entries made by FS is pointing to the F Drive therefore Re-assigning the letter to the new drive its a must for me thanks.

I believe just changing the Partition Letter F: wouldn't interfere with the OS considering the OS is on the C: Partition although it is the same drive but wanted to make sure before continuing

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Should we know what "FS" is?

 

[Garciamk4]

Flight; Simulator, Sorry About that My Simulator Instillation has reached a size of 251GB leaving only about 170GB or so on the F Partition just wanted to run it on its own drive that way it wont interfere with other Activities going on in the C Drive considering C: and F: Is practically the same drive

About two year ago i transfer the FS From a 74GB external but due to the growing size i decided to Split the C: into two C Running the OS and F Running FS (Flight Simulator) 2 years has passed now id like to Transfer FS (Flight Simulator) to run on its own drive.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I don't think changing the drive letters will affect C or the OS.

As I understand it, you will change the old F to some other letter, then install the new drive as F, and then reinstall Flight Simulator to the new F??

I don't see why that wouldn't be fine, but I have no experience with Flight Simulator, nor have I ever installed anything anywhere but C.

 

[Garciamk4]

Yes, but im actually transferring the simulator rather then Re-installing Now the problem is Ive already Transfer the FS Flight Simulator to the J Drive (Wich is the new drive) so is it still ok to change F To J for the Second Partion on the C Drive? and change J to F on the new Drive even though the files are already in there?
Or would changing the letter require a Re format on the new drive?

 

[Gator]

You won't affect the C: drive at all as long as you aren't trying to rename C: drive. You need to know that any programs will be broken on the current F: drive if you change it.

 

[Gator]

Yes, but im actually transferring the simulator rather then Re-installing Now the problem is Ive already Transfer the FS Flight Simulator to the J Drive (Wich is the new drive) so is it still ok to change F To J for the Second Partion on the C Drive? and change J to F on the new Drive even though the files are already in there?
Or would changing the letter require a Re format on the new drive?

Did you transfer everything, or just the Flight Simulator program itself?

 

[Garciamk4]

Yes im actually transferring Flight Simulator to the new drive so im thinking by assigning F to the new drive those registry entries made by FS would still be linked to the new drive after changing the letter. Is this correct? also Ive already installed the new Drive and Partiotioned it but its seen as J Drive ive already transfered the Flight simulator files to J drive is it still ok to Assign F to j and J to what use to be F without Reformatting j drive id hate to re-transfer the simulator 251 gb took me about 3hrs to transfer

 

[Garciamk4]

Did you transfer everything, or just the Flight Simulator program itself?

just the simulator theres no programs but the flight simulator in the F drive (All other programs referring to windows is on C drive) My main concern is the registry entries made by flight simulator points to F Drive so im thinking by changing J to F the registries wont know the difference rather its a new drive just as long as the path is the same

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I assume "transferring" essentially means dragging a bunch of folders from one partition or drive to another--rather than reinstalling.

And you say you've already done it.

I would have re-installed, but since you've already crossed the bridge, what have you got to lose by changing drive letters and seeing if it works?

 

[Garciamk4]

True just wanted to make sure with 250gb worth of payware and having my Flight simulator just the way i want it Re-installing woulnt have been the best option for me

 

[Gator]

What kind of files does the FS produce and what type of files does it depend on? Im not familiar with it.

 

[Garciamk4]

Flight simulator is just a simulator kinda like a game i guess but most refer to it as a simulator rather then a game. Most files are BGL's and Texture files for specific Land Class and Sceneries. I know some aircrafts have Registry Entries within the Registry to assure windows that the Aircraft's where purchased. But it all points to the F drive and some PDF Licence files wich point to C Drive

All BGL's are loaded within the simulator itself it searches for scenery within a Txt file labled Scenery.cfg to load up the scenery from what i know everything is loaded from the F Drive the only thing is the registry has some files linking the C to F for payware Scenery and Payware Aircrafts but considering J will soon become F those registry entries will still be pointing to F Drive once the letter is changed

 

[Garciamk4]

Just to confirm Re assigning a letter to an exiting partition doesn't require reformatting the partition?

 

[Gator]

Just to confirm Re assigning a letter to an exiting partition doesn't require reformatting the partition?

No, reassigning a drive letter will not require you to reformat. It will break things that required that drive letter but that is easily fixed by changing it back.

 

[Garciamk4]

ok so if FS(Flight Simulator is in J drive) Changing J to F should Re-link the registries to Flight simulator so as long as the Registry points to F?

In other Words the computer doesnt know F use to be J changed to F as long as the path in those registries are pointing to F

so anything that requires the drive letter will automatically be fixed if J becomes F

The idea is to transfer Flight Simulator from F to J then change the old F Letter to a different letter to then change J to F so flight simulator can run on its own drive rather then the old extended F partition

 

[Gator]

ok so if FS(Flight Simulator is in J drive) Changing J to F should Re-link the registries to Flight simulator so as long as the Registry points to F?

In other Words the computer doesnt know F use to be J changed to F as long as the path in those registries are pointing to F

Its complicated but basically.. Files that point to F: will play nice with the new J: drive that you will rename F:. Problem is, if some of these files on the current F: drive stay on J: and have registry pointers that still map to F:, they will be broken.

 

[Garciamk4]

Got it just make sure that J is F and doesnt stay as J lol Thanks There will be no files on the old F partitoned drive all filles will be transfered since its just the simulator so the old F partition will be completly Empty as it has nothing but the simulator

Just to be clear Everything on the old F will be transferred to J wich will become F

 

[Garciamk4]

All done and tested everything worked thanks guys for all your help

 

[Gator]

Glad it worked out for you, happy flying