Changing driveletters without reinstall

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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

I have got a computer with a cardreader and USB port on the front of the
computer. On installation of WinXP-SP2 the HDD that contains the system
gets the letter J and the HDD that contains the data gets the letter L.
Programs like Spybots Search and Destroy and Adaware cannot find the
system drive. It seems these programs are hard wired to look for C. How
can I change these drive letters and make the system HDD drive C:?

Erik Jan
 
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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Erik Jan wrote:
> I have got a computer with a cardreader and USB port on the front of the
> computer. On installation of WinXP-SP2 the HDD that contains the system
> gets the letter J and the HDD that contains the data gets the letter L.
> Programs like Spybots Search and Destroy and Adaware cannot find the
> system drive. It seems these programs are hard wired to look for C. How
> can I change these drive letters and make the system HDD drive C:?

The safest way to do this is a reinstall. The problem is that all of
your installed programs have many thousands of registry entries, many of
those pointing to locations on your HD. The smart ones use environment
variables to know where they are installed, but the majority won't.
Which means within the registry you will have the specific string
pointing to the file locations (ex. J:\Program Files\...). So simply
changing the drive letter without updating every single registry key
that points to the current drive letter will cause problems.

You can try a search and replace in the registry changing every
occurence of the current drive letter to new, but I have never known
anyone to do this successfully. See this KB article for additional
details - http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223188. Have a good backup
before proceeding.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Windows
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.
 
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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

In addition to what Tom has said, I would recommend that you disconnect all
card readers, zip drives etc. When the install has finished, reconnect the
items you had disconnected prior. They will find drive designations upon
boot up (other than drive/partition C:).

Boot from the Windows XP CD and perform your installation from there.
Remember, you are the one who has to be certain that the install is pointing
to drive C:

The system may not do this automatically.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

"Tom Porterfield" <tpporter@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:OjArkgfjFHA.3316@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> Erik Jan wrote:
>> I have got a computer with a cardreader and USB port on the front of the
>> computer. On installation of WinXP-SP2 the HDD that contains the system
>> gets the letter J and the HDD that contains the data gets the letter L.
>> Programs like Spybots Search and Destroy and Adaware cannot find the
>> system drive. It seems these programs are hard wired to look for C. How
>> can I change these drive letters and make the system HDD drive C:?
>
> The safest way to do this is a reinstall. The problem is that all of your
> installed programs have many thousands of registry entries, many of those
> pointing to locations on your HD. The smart ones use environment
> variables to know where they are installed, but the majority won't. Which
> means within the registry you will have the specific string pointing to
> the file locations (ex. J:\Program Files\...). So simply changing the
> drive letter without updating every single registry key that points to the
> current drive letter will cause problems.
>
> You can try a search and replace in the registry changing every occurence
> of the current drive letter to new, but I have never known anyone to do
> this successfully. See this KB article for additional details -
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223188. Have a good backup before
> proceeding.
> --
> Tom Porterfield
> MS-MVP Windows
> http://support.telop.org
>
> Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Richard Urban [MVP] zei het volgende op 21-7-2005 15:43:
> In addition to what Tom has said, I would recommend that you disconnect all
> card readers, zip drives etc. When the install has finished, reconnect the
> items you had disconnected prior. They will find drive designations upon
> boot up (other than drive/partition C:).
>
> Boot from the Windows XP CD and perform your installation from there.
> Remember, you are the one who has to be certain that the install is pointing
> to drive C:
>
> The system may not do this automatically.
>

Dear Tom and Richard,

I see there is no substitute for a reinstall. Thank you for your
answers. I shall reinstall soonest possible.

Erik Jan.