Solved Swapping System Drive Letters in Dual Boot Setup

[SIW2]

You can make a bootable usb from an .iso with PowerIso.

Or, you can do it the easy way and Run as admin on the NT6Installer.cmd in here: View attachment NT6INSTALLER.zip

 

[pjfarr]

Okay, bootable USB stick done and ready, using Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool and tutorial seavixen suggested. I'll give it a shot tomorrow morning. Again, for clarity, what should I do with the existing Win7 partition? Delete it and recreate it, but not assign it a letter this time?

 

[gregrocker]

Yes. Use the installer Custom>Drive options to delete, create new, format and install.

You may need to use the method I gave you to write to stick if it won't boot.

 

[pjfarr]

Got 'er done this morning. Booting and installing from the USB stick went smoothly, and now the system drive is always designated as "C:\" regardless of which OS I boot into. Just want I wanted, thanks guys for all the top-notch help!

And now, just a couple new issues (*siiigh*):

* There are now 2 listings for Windows 7 in the boot menu (under "Earlier Version Of Windows"). How do I get rid of the extra one?

* When in XP, the drive letter for my Docs drive is D:\, which is what I want (it's an actual physical drive, not partition). When in Win7, it's bumped to E:\ as XP grabs the D:\ slot. I don't really care where the XP drive is designated when in Win7, as long as it's not D:\ as that breaks a lot of my shortcuts and custom hotkeys. Anyone know how to fix this new stupidness?

 

[seavixen32]

If you sort the boot menu out that will probably sort out the drive letter issue.

Click Start and type msconfig in the Search field then press Enter to bring up the System Configuration window.

Click the Boot tab and delete the redundant Windows 7 listing.

 

[pjfarr]

Well, that was easy, lol. I actually tried looking in that tab already, but I was in XP at the time and Win7 wasn't even listed there and I thought I was screwed with another problem. Then it occurred to me to boot into 7 and try it from there.

So extra "Windows 7" is gone from boot menu (thanks, man.), but new drive letter issue remains. It's not an anal thing, I swear. My Doc drive has to be D:\ in both OS's due to a stack of shortcuts and custom hotkeys.

 

[seavixen32]

I think the only way round that one is to choose a different drive letter for your Documents drive that is well away from the C & D letters that XP and Win 7 use, something like J or K depending what other stuff you have in the way of optical and card reader drives.

 

[pjfarr]

What if I was to use Disk Manager in Win7 to change XP to W and Docs back to D, then boot into XP and change Win7 to W (Docs are already on D there). Will it all stay that way? Or am I just asking for trouble because I can't leave well enough alone and deserve every bad thing that happens to me?

Currently:
In XP: XP=C (correct), Win7=G, Docs=D (correct)
In Win7: Win7=C (correct), XP=D, Docs=E

My Wish:
In both OS's: Booted OS=C (as it is now), other OS=W, Docs=D

 

[SIW2]

What if I was to use Disk Manager in Windows 7 to change XP to W and Docs back to D, then boot into XP and change Windows 7 to W (Docs are already on D there). Will it all stay that way?

You will be fine to do that.

 

[pjfarr]

I attempted to make that change via Win7 Disk Manager, and got this and got very scared, so I answered "No" :

 

[seavixen32]

Just click Yes, it just means the drive letter will change when you restart your computer.

Windows won't change drive letters while the computer is being used.

 

[pjfarr]

Well I put the changes through and all is right again, although I have to admit I put it off for a couple hours due to nerves. I was reading too many contradicting things about changing drive letters of partitions with system files on them but finally bit the bullet.

Booted OS on C:\ — check.
Docs on D:\ — check.
Optical Drives on E:\ and F:\ — check.
Non-booted OS on W:\ — check.

Thank you, guys. Thank you, thank you. I appreciate the time you put into this.

 

[gregrocker]

Good work.

It is a bit of a gray area because you almost always ruin your OS when you change it's drive letter, but W was not the true XP drive letter (C) but a placeholder letter for XP while booted into Win7.

What made it safe is SIW2 saying so because he is our teacher here.

 

[pjfarr]

What made it safe is SIW2 saying so because he is our teacher here.

Actually, it was the apparent confidence you had in that statement when you said it earlier that convinced me it was the way to go. Thanks again.

 

[gregrocker]

You're most welcome. Glad to help.

I deleted my comment after SIW2 weighed in because he is the word here.

 

[seavixen32]

Well done from me too, it's always nice to hear of a successful outcome.