How to change drive letter in XP when dual boot with 7?

[gregrocker]

SIW2's method was to get rid of the drive letter on the system boot partition. But Windows XP itself will still be tied to the D: drive.

My dual boot XP's have often been C: when I'm in XP and D: when I'm in 7.

The issue seems to be why the 100mb partition is lettered C: in XP. The solution to delete it still seems the best, unless there are other ideas.

 

[gregrocker]

I tried to fix it but now I can't logon to xp.

What did you do that broke XP?

You might want to attach a screenshot of Disk Management, so we can have a look

read first page. the only way he can recover from that "forced relettering of a system drive" disaster is to reimage, but he wants to solve the problem which will still exists: how to get the C: letter off of the 100mb system partition and onto his XP.

I believe the solution is to delete the 100 mb partition as shown above to free up the C: letter and then see how XP letters the drives. You will have C: available for a reinstall of XP in the worst case. Then use EasyBCD from XP desktop to add Win7 to bootloader because Win7 startup repair might otherwise re-write the 100mb partition.

A little more help here?

 

[justi]

I tried to fix it but now I can't logon to xp.

What did you do that broke XP?

You might want to attach a screenshot of Disk Management, so we can have a look

I can't use xp so I can't post a screenshot.
I followed this Microsoft KB that broke xp.
(aka the method pbcopter said #4)

How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

 

[sup3rsprt]

My dual boot XP's have often been C: when I'm in XP and D: when I'm in 7.

Didn't he say XP shows up in D: even in XP. If so, it's a different issue.

 

[justi]

SIW2's method was to get rid of the drive letter on the system boot partition. But Windows XP itself will still be tied to the D: drive.

My dual boot XP's have often been C: when I'm in XP and D: when I'm in 7.

The issue seems to be why the 100mb partition is lettered C: in XP. The solution to delete it still seems the best, unless there are other ideas.

You mean the OS you log onto is always c:?
I also think so but I doubt if I delete it then recover xp,7 will become c: in xp because I mark it as active.

 

[sup3rsprt]

I can't use xp so I can't post a screenshot.

Make a screenshot in Windows 7.

I followed this Microsoft KB that broke xp.
(aka the method pbcopter said #4)

Ah, yeah. That's typical. You tried to change the XP partition letter in the registry, which is not reliable.

 

[justi]

how to get the C: letter off of the 100mb system partition and onto his XP.

Yes,exactly.I wanna make 7 is c: when I'm in 7 and xp is c: when in xp.

 

[Tews]

If you can successfully boot into 7 and XP, what is the difference... is this a performance issue, or just an annoyance??

 

[gregrocker]

I tried to fix it but now I can't logon to xp.

What did you do that broke XP?

You might want to attach a screenshot of Disk Management, so we can have a look

I can't use xp so I can't post a screenshot.
I followed this Microsoft KB that broke xp.
(aka the method pbcopter said #4)

How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

That's the same one I followed that broke my Vista or Win7 awhile back. Didn't heed the warning at the beginning not to do it unless the drive letters have changed from one letter to another recently.

If you installed WIn7 second to XP, which I assume you did since it added the boot partition, then XP has proven its ability to change drive letters by lettering that 100mb partition C: after it was installed. Wasn't XP lettered C: before you installed Win7?

This means that XP can change its letter and may do so again if/when you delete that 100mb partition and reinstall the boot loader in XP as SIW2 suggests:

You could boot the 7 dvd to system recovery options command promt.

Then use diskpart to remove the 100mb partition and mark the 7 partition Active.

Then run startup repair 3 times.

Boot into 7, and add XP entries to the new bcd store using bcdedit.

Any backup image you already have won't include those changes - so make another when done.

It's worth a try if you are up for it, see where the letters end up and go from there. . You'll need to reimage first, but that's easy with Win7 backup imaging. After we see where the letters land, it may need an XP reinstall but we need to see first. You can always re-image if you give up. But there is probably a fix in here somewhere since XP has apparently already shown that it can change letters after install, right?

 

[justi]

My dual boot XP's have often been C: when I'm in XP and D: when I'm in 7.

Didn't he say XP shows up in D: even in XP. If so, it's a different issue.

Yes,it has 3 partitions showed in 7 but 4 in xp so the drive letters are all different.

 

[sup3rsprt]

If you can successfully boot into 7 and XP, what is the difference... is this a performance issue, or just an annoyance??

That's what I was wondering too. :sarc:

 

[Tews]

If you can successfully boot into 7 and XP, what is the difference... is this a performance issue, or just an annoyance??

That's what I was wondering too. :sarc:

If it aint broke, dont fix it...

 

[justi]

Make a screenshot in Windows 7.

I just realize it's not English so you may not be able to understand.
and in 7 it's just fine.

 

[SIW2]

Did you notice this bit in the KB?

this is not recommended, especially if the drive letter is the same as when Windows was installed

 

[justi]

If you can successfully boot into 7 and XP, what is the difference... is this a performance issue, or just an annoyance??

Some programs will defaultly install or run in c drive so they can't function if xp is not running in c:

 

[justi]

If you can successfully boot into 7 and XP, what is the difference... is this a performance issue, or just an annoyance??

That's what I was wondering too. :sarc:

If it aint broke, dont fix it...

If there's no way to put xp back to c:,I can only use the image to recover xp then leave the problem there.

 

[Tews]

What programs specifically are you having problems with that relate to this issue...

 

[justi]

Did you notice this bit in the KB?

this is not recommended, especially if the drive letter is the same as when Windows was installed

Yes,so I made an image first.
I wonder how pbcopter succeeded?

 

[sup3rsprt]

Make a screenshot in Windows 7.

I just realize it's not English so you may not be able to understand.
and in 7 it's just fine.

of course I could understand it. If 7 is fine, that wasn't the point. Nevermind..

 

[gregrocker]

SIW2's method was to get rid of the drive letter on the system boot partition. But Windows XP itself will still be tied to the D: drive.

My dual boot XP's have often been C: when I'm in XP and D: when I'm in 7.

The issue seems to be why the 100mb partition is lettered C: in XP. The solution to delete it still seems the best, unless there are other ideas.

You mean the OS you log onto is always c:?
I also think so but I doubt if I delete it then recover xp,7 will become c: in xp because I mark it as active.

Yes log onto C: whether XP or Win7. Other times it has been C:XP and D:Win7. I think with the C: freed up it will default to XP as active partition. But you won't know unless you try. It's just a 20+ minute reimage, and you can't wear it out.