Installed 7 to E:; move to C:

[distancesprinte]

I installed Windows 7 to the drive letter (C, but the Windows installer made the drive I wanted to use (E instead of (C.

I have a 320 GB drive (E and 200 GB drive (C. I would like to move Windows 7 from my 200 GB (C drive to my 320 GB (E drive, but then change my 320 GB drive so that it becomes (C and the 200 GB drive so it becomes (E. See below:

200 GB (C Windows 7 --> 320 GB (C Windows 7
320 GB (E Archive --> 200 GB (E Archive

I backed up my Windows 7 and Archive partitions using Active Boot Disk, then used the Partition Tool to change the drive letter of the 200 GB (C to make it 200 GB (E and formatted the 320 GB (E and change the drive letter to (C.

At this point I had:

320 GB (C Free space
200 GB (E Windows 7

I proceeded to restore the backup partition of Windows 7 to the now free 320 GB (C partition with Active Boot Disk.

Finally, I had:

320 (C Windows 7
200 (E Windows 7

However, after restarting, my computer still loads Windows 7 from the 200 GB Drive! Then Windows changed all the drive letters back to how they were before!

I am now stuck with:

200 (C Windows 7
320 (E Windows 7

How do I get windows to boot from the 320 GB drive and name it with the drive letter (C?

I would wipe the 200 GB drive free of Windows 7, but I wanted to make sure I got it working on the 320 GB drive before I erase it.

Please advise!

Thanks,

ds

PS-I am not changing my hardware configuration so I was expecting that I would be able to perform this move without trouble.

 

[gregrocker]

Mark the new Win7 HD active in Disk Management.

Make sure new Win7 HD is set as first HD to boot in BIOS or plug the old Win7 HD cable into it, Unplug the old Win7 drive,

boot into the Win7 DVD Repair console, click through to Recovery Tools list and run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times to repair or rewrite the MBR to new Win7.

You cannot change the drive letter by assigning another, however Win7 may do it for you.

 

[1Bowtie]

Now would be the time to do a clean install and this time unplug the drive you don't want the os on. Now Win 7 will become C:, delete the partition on the other drive from disk mgr it will become unallocated space partition the way you want, format give drive letter and your done. Be sure you backup all your important data before you start.

Smitty

 

[distancesprinte]

@gregrocker

I tried this but following the change, Windows will not load my user profile and it now has a watermarked background reporting that "This copy of Windows is not genuine".

@1Bowtie

Yes, I think it would be a good idea too. I just don't want to reactivate, considering I just did so last night before I realized what I had done. I'll probably need to call Microsoft and be harangued by some customer service rep. They're probably not even open!

 

[gregrocker]

If that is the case, use FREE Rescue Kit Express | PARAGON Software Group

Boot the Paragon cd - select Normal Mode , then Boot Corrector.

Correct drive letters in the system registry. Assign C to the NEW copied 7 partition

If this fails, then reassign D: to be able to boot into 7.