# Reformatting - Wrong Drive Letters?



## CarolinaKSU (Jul 31, 2008)

Hi all, I have a Raid0 array with 2 750gb F1's and I needed to reinstall windows due to some nasty virus issues. After getting into XP setup and getting the part where you choose what partition you want, it has mixed up my drive letters. What it is telling me is that my 65gb partition for my windows install is drive D: while my storage partition is now drive C: on my two raid drives. I really dont want my system partition to be drive D and my CD drive to be drive E:, is there a way to fix this? Google has turned up nothing useful and everyone says renaming the system partition after installing windows is not gooo, so what way is there to change them without windows installing all the way?


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## Darknova (Jul 31, 2008)

CarolinaKSU said:


> Hi all, I have a Raid0 array with 2 750gb F1's and I needed to reinstall windows due to some nasty virus issues. After getting into XP setup and getting the part where you choose what partition you want, it has mixed up my drive letters. What it is telling me is that my 65gb partition for my windows install is drive D: while my storage partition is now drive C: on my two raid drives. I really dont want my system partition to be drive D and my CD drive to be drive E:, is there a way to fix this? Google has turned up nothing useful and everyone says renaming the system partition after installing windows is not gooo, so what way is there to change them without windows installing all the way?



Unplug all harddrives but the one you wish to install on to (good practice anywho).


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jul 31, 2008)

If he is on raid 0 and the letters are wrong,he cant unplug a drive can he or it will not see the raid array.

Could you not install to D: and change it in windows somehow?


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## CarolinaKSU (Jul 31, 2008)

Darknova said:


> Unplug all harddrives but the one you wish to install on to (good practice anywho).



Everything else is unplugged, the Raid disks are the ones I am installing on. All i have plugged in right now is those two drives and my CD drive.

Also, switching the cables did nothing.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jul 31, 2008)

can you not switch the drive letters on the drive options during setup?


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## CarolinaKSU (Aug 1, 2008)

tigger69 said:


> can you not switch the drive letters on the drive options during setup?



Where is this at? All i see is the options for the partitions but nothing about switching the drive letters


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## theJesus (Aug 1, 2008)

I've never seen any option to switch the drive letters during setup either.  I'm also 99.9% certain you can't change the letter of your active partition.  I would say to just repartition, but I'm assuming you have data on your storage drive that you wish to keep.  All I can think of is installing to D, backing up C, and then repartitioning.  So hopefully you have another disk with enough room for that.


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## Deleted member 38767 (Aug 1, 2008)

XP installation is beach when it comes to partition letters. There is no way to change them while installing XP other than repartitioning. I would try some HDD management software that runs outside Windows and rename the partitions with it before installing. This may work. Of course you can always do what theJesus would do: backup and repartition. Or just go to Vista (in Vista system partition automatically becomes C: )


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## theJesus (Aug 1, 2008)

That gives me an idea.  Start to install vista so the partition becomes C, then go back and try to re-install xp.  Not sure it would work, but if you have a vista disk, it might be worth a try.


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## Cybrnook2002 (Aug 1, 2008)

Ok, do so googling about acronis True Image 11 and disk letters. Its the program I use to save all my info, and I know that people wee having troubles with the drive letters there. It was something about modifying the boot.ini and assigning drives. Anyway, I found this for you:

Change the System/Boot Drive Letter
Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
322756 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/) How to back up and restore the registry in Windows
1.	Make a full system backup of the computer and system state.
2.	Log on as an Administrator.
3.	Start Regedt32.exe.
4.	Go to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
5.	Click MountedDevices.
6.	On the Security menu, click Permissions.
7.	Verify that Administrators have full control. Change this back when you are finished with these steps.
8.	Quit Regedt32.exe, and then start Regedit.exe.
9.	Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
10.	Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for "\DosDevices\C:".
11.	Right-click \DosDevices\C:, and then click Rename.

Note You must use Regedit instead of Regedt32 to rename this registry key.
12.	Rename it to an unused drive letter "\DosDevices\Z:".

This frees up drive letter C.
13.	Find the drive letter you want changed. Look for "\DosDevices\D:".
14.	Right-click \DosDevices\D:, and then click Rename.
15.	Rename it to the appropriate (new) drive letter "\DosDevices\C:".
16.	Click the value for \DosDevices\Z:, click Rename, and then name it back to "\DosDevices\D:".
17.	Quit Regedit, and then start Regedt32.
18.	Change the permissions back to the previous setting for Administrators (this should probably be Read Only).
19.	Restart the computer.


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## Deleted member 38767 (Aug 1, 2008)

The question is will Windows boot ones you change the drive letter? If it will he can use Acronis disk manager to do it - it easier and won't have to meddle with the registry. But I don't think this will work. I may be wrong though.


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## CarolinaKSU (Aug 1, 2008)

Well, after giving up, I decided to not mess around with the True Image 11 fix. I had come across it but it seemed too risky and too many steps for something to go wrong. So I just deleted my partitions and reinstalled windows on top of what I already had setup.

Well, by some hook and crook method, not only do I now have proper letters for my drives, but all my data saved on the storage partion in the raid array IS STILL THERE!!!1~! I have no clue how it is there, but all my music and dvd backups and pics etc is still there and intact. The only thing I could think of is that when i deleted the partitions XP setup just started where the old one left off and didnt write over any of my other stuff in the other partition since I kept it the same size. Crazy.


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## theJesus (Aug 1, 2008)

Hmm, I shall have to remember that if I ever find myself in a similar situation.  Glad it worked out, I would double-check to make sure none of it is corrupted.


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## AsRock (Aug 1, 2008)

Sounds like your boot files might be on the C: partition.  Un-hide the files so you can check that as it will stop you formating that drive. All so rename the drives so you know were your installing the OS.  Backup and reinstall OS to the partition you want it on if you find files like Boot.ini on drive C:... Which part of this you did .

I use dual boot and it's happened to me in the past thats why i name the drives so i know which is which.


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## CarolinaKSU (Aug 1, 2008)

AsRock said:


> Sounds like your boot files might be on the C: partition.  Un-hide the files so you can check that as it will stop you formating that drive. All so rename the drives so you know were your installing the OS.  Backup and reinstall OS to the partition you want it on if you find files like Boot.ini on drive C:... Which part of this you did .
> 
> I use dual boot and it's happened to me in the past thats why i name the drives so i know which is which.



Yeah luckily I named my drives so I knew what was what when i was formatting, that was a lifesaver when fixing partitions


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