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

[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

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

Good idea - I always do that before mucking about with something hazardous.

 

[justi]

Another guy made this mistake...
http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...nge-drive-letter-boot-drive-2.html#post196344

 

[justi]

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

Some panel control utility bundled with this fujitsu laptop.
And for further use,put the active OS in c: might be the best choice.
But if impossible,I can only leave it like this.

 

[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.

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

Ok.
And thank everyone for replying.

 

[justi]

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.

Any detail tutorial about diskpart command like SIW2 posted?

 

[sabajordan]

Join Date: Oct 2009

windows 7
2 posts





​

plz help
hi i upgrade my system to Windows 7 and i had an antivirus maccafi8.5 and now i can't reinstall ths antivirus on my system help me wht can i do?

 

[gregrocker]

Tews brings up an point to consider. Programs no longer necessarily default install or refer to C: I have run Win7 by itself on E: for six months on one machine with no noticeable effect. So unless you have specific programs that are affected, you might want to let it go and see what happens.

 

[sabajordan]

help me

 

[gregrocker]

Another guy made this mistake...
http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...nge-drive-letter-boot-drive-2.html#post196344

I remember reading that post, how that guy defends wiping out his installation saying: "The interestsing thing is that it almost works"

 

[justi]

Join Date: Oct 2009

windows 7
2 posts​

​

plz help
hi i upgrade my system to Windows 7 and i had an antivirus maccafi8.5 and now i can't reinstall ths antivirus on my system help me wht can i do?

It's strange why you post it here.
But I think I can help you 'cause I've been using mcafee for long.
8.5i doesn't support Win7.
You have to use 8.7i.

 

[justi]

Tews brings up an point to consider. Programs no longer necessarily default install or refer to C: I have run Win7 by itself on E: for six months on one machine with no noticeable effect. So unless you have specific programs that are affected, you might want to let it go and see what happens.

Yes,that's the final solution:
recover xp,fix boot,leave it there.
but before this I wanna see what else I can do.
And I haven't install many programs in xp yet.I'm not sure any other errors will occur or not in the future.

 

[gregrocker]

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

Some panel control utility bundled with this fujitsu laptop.
.

I love rippin those things out when I clean install.

Ask yourself it you will use it, or if you have used it, and if not then: "hasta la vista, bloatie." It might even be a free rider on your startup.

 

[justi]

Another guy made this mistake...
http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...nge-drive-letter-boot-drive-2.html#post196344

I remember reading that post, how that guy defends wiping out his installation saying: "The interestsing thing is that it almost works"

I guess there's only working without error,or not.nothing like almost,60% working,etc...

 

[Tews]

help me

Please, do not hijack this thread and bump it after two minutes... You have already started another thread -=> here ...

 

[justi]

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

Some panel control utility bundled with this fujitsu laptop.
.

I love rippin those things out when I clean install.

Ask yourself it you will use it, or if you have used it, and if not then: "hasta la vista, bloatie." It might even be a free rider on your startup.

It's like a hardware shortcut or navigator and useful.
But if I have to give it up,I will.

 

[gregrocker]

I'd just reimage.

Unless you wanna see where C: lands when you delete the 100mb partition and write the bootloader into XP. Of course you've got to reimage to do that, too.

This is the diskpart command I used to delete the Acer recovery partition that wouldn't come out with any partition software. Run it from Win7 cmd as administrator or the Win7 installer Repair command prompt, then startup repair 3 times, boot into 7 and run EasyBCD or bcEdit to reinstall the XP bootloader.

 

[justi]

help me

Please, do not hijack this thread and bump it after two minutes... You have already started another thread -=> here ...

don't know if he sees my answer.but it does surprise myself that I understand what he means.

 

[gregrocker]

This is from another forum here:

This small partition contains the boot manager (file "bootmgr" and folder "/boot/") and these files are missing on the Windows 7 partition.

It is possible to delete this small partition. I boot with Linux, delete the partition and merge the free space to the Windows 7 partition. After this Windows 7 will not boot. But I boot from Windows 7 installation DVD and do a system repair. This installs the boot manager IN the Windows 7 partition and after this Windows 7 boots fine.

I think he is right that you would need to merge the free space into the first partition since that space contains the boot sector of the HDD.

Your XP is in the first partition, right?

You installed XP first and Win7 second?

I still cannot figure out why XP would change its drive letter over to the boot partition, unless XP was installed last and snafued.

 

[justi]

This is from another forum here:

This small partition contains the boot manager (file "bootmgr" and folder "/boot/") and these files are missing on the Windows 7 partition.

It is possible to delete this small partition. I boot with Linux, delete the partition and merge the free space to the Windows 7 partition. After this Windows 7 will not boot. But I boot from Windows 7 installation DVD and do a system repair. This installs the boot manager IN the Windows 7 partition and after this Windows 7 boots fine.

I think he is right that you would need to merge the free space into the first partition since that space contains the boot sector of the HDD.

Your XP is in the first partition, right?

You installed XP first and Win7 second?

I still cannot figure out why XP would change its drive letter over to the boot partition, unless XP was installed last and snafued.

Unfortunately 7 is installed first.
physically (I guess) it is
boot - 7 - xp - data.
I'm reading the MS Technet now.

 

[gregrocker]

This is from another forum here:

This small partition contains the boot manager (file "bootmgr" and folder "/boot/") and these files are missing on the Windows 7 partition.

It is possible to delete this small partition. I boot with Linux, delete the partition and merge the free space to the Windows 7 partition. After this Windows 7 will not boot. But I boot from Windows 7 installation DVD and do a system repair. This installs the boot manager IN the Windows 7 partition and after this Windows 7 boots fine.

I think he is right that you would need to merge the free space into the first partition since that space contains the boot sector of the HDD.

Your XP is in the first partition, right?

You installed XP first and Win7 second?

I still cannot figure out why XP would change its drive letter over to the boot partition, unless XP was installed last and snafued.

Unfortunately 7 is installed first.
physically (I guess) it is
boot - 7 - xp - data.
I'm reading the MS Technet now.

Ok that is the problem then. Since you installed XP second, it obviously assigned C: to the boot partition, and I doubt now it would change it's drive letter.

I get my best advice from Technet. When I recently asked in several forums about changing a system drive letter with repair install, it got answered (No!) by a MS MVP expert on Technet.

They will help you sort this out.