Solved How to change the drive letter in a dual boot computer

[VistaUltimate]

Hi,
I would like to know how to have the same letter in the two partitions which I dual boot.For example,when I boot into Windows 8,the boot partition's letter is C:,but Windows 7's partition letter is G:.I shrank the C: partition,formatted the new one and didn't assign any letter.In a previous time,I could have Windows 7 partition as C: when I booted into it and the 8 one had the letter E:.The installation DVD showed the non-assigned-a-letter partition as G:.What shall I do?

 

[gregrocker]

If Windows 7 isn't C when it is booted then this is because it was installed from another OS and not correctly booted to install. This blocked the C letter from being available to assign to it.

Windows 7 would not be expected to be C when it is not the booted OS, as the booted OS should always be the only one assigned C.

 

[VistaUltimate]

Windows 7 was installed from inside Windows 8.The G: letter was assigned to the partition I wanted to install 7 without even being assigned by me.I will try a custom installation from Windows 7 and see if the letter is changed to C:

 

[gregrocker]

It is never correct to install an OS from another OS, and as I stated it will remove C from being available.

If you know for sure that WIn7 will not boot as C and you want it to do so, then you'll need to boot the Win7 installer to Clean Reinstall Windows 7.

 

[VistaUltimate]

Do you mean that I boot from the DVD?
Anyway,I will try the reinstall right now.
Then I will delete the Windows.old folder,since I backed up the music,pictures,videos and the rest in a USB.

 

[gregrocker]

Yes, always boot the installation media, delete the target partition, then recreate it, format and click next to proceed.

 

[VistaUltimate]

I never boot from it,because it gives GPT errors and if I change it to MBR,the Windows 8 partition will be unbootable.The only ISO I have as UEFI bootable is a Digital River ISO which has Ultimate 64 bit.Shall I burn it to a DVD?

 

[gregrocker]

You should unlock the ISO with eicfg removal tool first before burning to disk with ImgBurn at 4x speed, choose only your licensed version to install.

If you have a GPT disk then you'll see an EFI System partition in Disk Mgmt. Look now. In that case you must boot the disk as a UEFI device so that you don't have errors. Let us know any other errors so we can help you work through them.

 

[VistaUltimate]

The UEFI Boot settings are as follows:
UEFI Boot:Legacy Support
UEFI Priority:UEFI First
It's in Legacy because if I change it to UEFI it will give 0xc000428 error and the ISO is English of course.I would like to have the option to choose language in Setup

 

[gregrocker]

You can choose some Language options on the first screen of installer. Then full Language packs are available in Professional version via optional Windows Update list.

Some BIOS' require Legacy or CSM to install Windows 7 at all. Others you can keep it set to UEFI since you're installing Win7 to UEFI anyway. You'll have to experiment to see, or keep what you have if that's what worked in the past.

Either way, you'll need to turn off Secure Boot in BIOS' Security settings to install Win7.

 

[VistaUltimate]

The problem is that there isn't any language other than English to install.Only time, currency and keyboard can be Greek.

 

[gregrocker]

Then you either need to find a Greek installation ISO, or install the Greek language pack from Optional Windows Updates after install.

I'm not absolutely sure an English Product Key will work with a Greek installer, though, even if you can find one. You can ask Kari who would know for sure.

 

[VistaUltimate]

I have a Greek ISO without SP1 but it is not bootable.The English one has SP1 and I have tested on a VM that it is UEFI bootable.So,I will select ImgBurn,create image file from files/folders,select every file except for ei.cfg and select etfsboot.com as bootable file,right?

 

[gregrocker]

If it's an ISO it should be bootable using ImgBurn to burn to new DVD at 4x speed.

If only files try this: How To Create Bootable Windows ISO From Files/Folders

 

[VistaUltimate]

This is what I did.You will have to wait 15 hours to get an answer from me,since the time is different and I have work until afternoon,so don't expect responses until that
I made the ISO and will burn to a DVD later,after I test the ISO in VMware Workstation 11 in EFI mode:info:

 

[AddRAM]

What do you mean you have a greek iso but it`s not bootable ?

Burn the iso file to dvd or flash drive and it will be bootable.

 

[VistaUltimate]

Haven't I done this? It still wasn't bootable.As I said,I'll try the new English ISO without ei.cfg and see if it is bootable.The bad thing however,is that I will have to install my native language after I do the installation and it will take at least 10 minutes to install,plus the new updates,which are 400-600 MB and maybe the Office ones.Is there any way to change the install.wim file to have a Greek language?

 

[gregrocker]

If not save a backup image of the completed install so you never have to reinstall again anyway. This is the modern method.

 

[VistaUltimate]

And how can I make a WIM image of these files and folders?

 

[Chris2005]

Yea, I'd always install from boot, not inside the OS, so you have all drive letters available to the OS being installed.

As for installing an older OS onto a drive that has a newer OS, you'll have to repair the MBR, if I recall correctly, to re-add the newer OS into the list.

So, if you installed 8 before 7, you'll need to repair the MBR so it knows there are two OS's on the same drive or even if it's a different drive. Now, usually, when you install a newer OS after an older OS, you don't need to do this. Haven't dual booted in a long time.

If you have an image file, use something like ImgBurn to properly burn the disc image file, don't just burn the image file to the disc as a file.

I'm not sure how to backup Windows using other programs, etc. but you can backup Windows from within itself, how that exactly works, I don't know, as I don't use Windows backup.