OK to change drive letter?

[stonebear]

I have Windows installed on my SSD and have some installed some programs on my other drive which is partitioned. I have already removed the drive letter (D) from the system reserved 100mb partition on the other hard drive (it used to have windows installed on it).

So now my partitions/drive letters read C, E, F, G but I want them to be C, D, E, F.

The programs are installed on on F which I want to rename E, will the appropriate registry changes be made if I change the drive letters using Disk Management?

IT does say "change drive letter and path" so I am thinking it will work but just want to be sure. Thanks.

 

[DalekOverSeer]

in 7 you can just get rid of the drive letters. name each drive for what they contain, then go to folder options in control panel and uncheck show drive letters. easier than trying to be sure that all paths updated.

 

[stonebear]

How do I do that please? Right click the drive icon and change eg. "local Disk" to something else?

 

[seavixen32]

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

Can you post a screenshot of your expanded disk management layout so that we can check which is your active partition?

I'm just wondering if there will be any ramifications in changing the drive letter for it.

 

[DalekOverSeer]

How do I do that please? Right click the drive icon and change eg. "local Disk" to something else?

yea just rightclick the drive and select rename

 

[stonebear]

@ Seavixen

I have deleted the unused system reserved so it is slightly different than I first described but the same principle applies.

Windows is on C the SSD (not changing that), the program I installed (a game I didn't want taking up space on the SSD) is on F which I want to rename E.

IT's only one program so if it doesn't work it's not a huge issue but I still think it should be OK.

 

[stonebear]

I just don't like having drives that are labelled C, D, F, G, it's not right! lol

BTW, "H" is just Virtual Clone Drive.

 

[DalekOverSeer]

I just don't like having drives that are labelled C, D, F, G, it's not right! lol

BTW, "H" is just Virtual Clone Drive.

then just name them like i suggested. if your concerned about windows be last don't be. you can either name it like 7 which will make it first or do like i did and simply put a space in front of the name.

 

[stonebear]

then just name them like i suggested.

I probably will, but I would like to hear back from Seavixen about the other way first.

 

[DalekOverSeer]

fair enough. good luck either way.

 

[seavixen32]

Your System Reserved partition is the active one so it's best to leave it alone.

If you do delete it you would need to make your C drive active and run System Repair three times to rebuild the boot record.

All I'd be inclined to do is to change drive letter F to E and drive letter G to F.

You might also want to consider swapping the drive leads on Sata 0 and Sata 1 on your motherboard.

You currently have Windows on Drive 1 whereas Windows normally looks for Drive 0 when it boots up.

 

[stonebear]

All I'd be inclined to do is to change drive letter F to E and drive letter G to F.

That is all I want to do.

The system reserved I deleted used to be on the other disk, it used to have windows on, I was dual booting. I do not want to delete from the boot drive.

Also, I know this is weird but the boot drive is on SATA 0 and the other 1TB drive is on SATA 5 so I don't know why it has it backwards in Windows.

SO changing F to E will be OK even when I have a game installed on F?

 

[seavixen32]

All I'd be inclined to do is to change drive letter F to E and drive letter G to F.

That is all I want to do.

The system reserved I deleted used to be on the other disk, it used to have windows on, I was dual booting. I do not want to delete from the boot drive.

Also, I know this is weird but the boot drive is on SATA 0 and the other 1TB drive is on SATA 5 so I don't know why it has it backwards in Windows.

SO changing F to E will be OK even when I have a game installed on F?

I can't see any problem with changing F to E, it just means you're looking for a different drive letter when you start gaming, not a different partition - so I'd say yes, just go ahead.

 

[stonebear]

I can't see any problem with changing F to E, it just means you're looking for a different drive letter when you start gaming, not a different partition - so I'd say yes, just go ahead.

Ok thanks, I am just concerned that the registry wouldn't be updated as all the references to the game are with the game on F.

But that is what the "path" part of "change drive letter and path" is all about I guess.

 

[DalekOverSeer]

I can't see any problem with changing F to E, it just means you're looking for a different drive letter when you start gaming, not a different partition - so I'd say yes, just go ahead.

Ok thanks, I am just concerned that the registry wouldn't be updated as all the references to the game are with the game on F.

But that is what the "path" part of "change drive letter and path" is all about I guess.

i'm going to make an assumption and assume that you are just going to place a shortcut to the game where you want it. if that is the case the shortcut will do all the work. as long as you have gone into you new e drive and that programs folder and rightclicked to create a shortcut of it's exe you will not have a problem running it.

 

[seekermeister]

All I'd be inclined to do is to change drive letter F to E and drive letter G to F.

That is all I want to do.

The system reserved I deleted used to be on the other disk, it used to have windows on, I was dual booting. I do not want to delete from the boot drive.

Also, I know this is weird but the boot drive is on SATA 0 and the other 1TB drive is on SATA 5 so I don't know why it has it backwards in Windows.

SO changing F to E will be OK even when I have a game installed on F?

I was reading something to that regards recently...about how Windows sometimes disagrees with the motherboards about the numbering of drives. It seems that it isn't Windows fault, it has to do with the design of the motherboard. The author suggested making Windows the authority on which drive is which.

EDIT: I remembered where I read that:

Down below, we see six SATA 6.0 Gbps connectors courtesy of SB850. The connectors are angled by 90 degree so that large video cards do not block their entrance. These connectors, we’re happy to report, are correctly numbered on the board’s PCB, manual, and in the BIOS. This may sound trivial but it is one of those things that board makers can’t seem to get right for whatever reason. If you have ever had to go through the process of trial and error to determine which port is port No. 1 and which is No. 6 (or anything in between) to setup a RAID array or a hot-swap bay, you’ll know what we’re talking about. On the Deluxe 4, port No. 1 is port No. 1 in the BIOS, in the manual, and on the board’s PCB whether the storage subsystem is configured as plain IDE, AHCI, or RAID mode.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3877/...investigation-of-thuban-performance-scaling/4

I guess that the conclusion that I mentioned was my interpretation of this paragraph, but I think that I understood him correctly.

 

[stonebear]

i'm going to make an assumption and assume that you are just going to place a shortcut to the game where you want it. if that is the case the shortcut will do all the work. as long as you have gone into you new e drive and that programs folder and rightclicked to create a shortcut of it's exe you will not have a problem running it.

Ok great, thanks.

 

[stonebear]

I was reading something to that regards recently...about how Windows sometimes disagrees with the motherboards about the numbering of drives. It seems that it isn't Windows fault, it has to do with the design of the motherboard. The author suggested making Windows the authority on which drive is which.

Yea, I am fairly sure the board is labelled wrong now you mention it! I have nocticed before that things weren't as they were supposed to be.

HDDerase is a bit of software for wiping SSD's, it is notoriously fussy about which port it will "see" the drive on, it is supposed to see it on the main controller (SATA 0 or 1 I think) but it only saw the drive when it was connected to SATA 5.

Also I just noticed when booting up that the bios thinks the SSD is a "slave", weirdness.

 

[stonebear]

I used Partition Wizard to see what that showed and got this

So, PW says I have the drives in the right order, boot drive is Disk 1 and the 1TB drive is Disk 2 but as we can see from my image on page 1, Windows says the 1TB drive is Disk 0 and the boot drive is Disk 1, the wrong order.

I downloaded Partition Wizard because Dalek suggested on this thread but his post and my reply seem to have gone?

 

[stonebear]

I had hoped PW would have an option to tell me the SATA port the drive used but I couldn't see an option for that.