Installed new hdd - drive letters changed

[tepe2]

Bought a new hdd Samsung 500 GB. The old one - Seagate 250 GB.

BEFORE:

C: Windows partition 48 GB
D: MyDocuments 184 GB
External hdd with 4 partitions - J,K,L,M.

After replacing old hdd with new, and installing XP on the new I have...

...NOW:

H: Windows partition
C: for MyDocuments
External still the same, which is OK.

Is it possible to change this? What I want is my new hdd to look like this:

C: Windows
D: MyDocuments
External and removeable dont care, doesnt matter
also my DVD-ram is now D: but I want it to be another letter of course since I want MyDocuments on D:

Tried to change H: in Windows, but get the message it is not possible.

[tgell]

From: http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

-{ Quote: "These examples illustrate two general rules for successful cloning of NT-family OS's:

Do not let old-XP see the new partition before cloning.
Doing so would give XP a chance to assign a drive letter, it will be remembered by the registry when it is cloned, and the clone will adopt the wrong drive letter for itself.

Do not let new-XP see the old-XP partition the first time it boots.
If new-XP sees old-XP, it won't reuse the original drive letter when it assigns a drive letter to itself. (Once XP-2 has booted and reallocated new drive letters, the old-XP partition can be reintroduced into the system, if desired.)

Although these examples use XP, they apply just as well to NT and 2000" }-

Go here (http://www.partition-saving.com/) and read the documentation on changing drive letters. This program lets you change letters. You need a bootable floppy or CD.

[tepe2]

I have been searching around, and I dont believe there is an easy way to do this. So maybe I have to reinstall all over again. But what will happen then? My Windows partition showing up as H: again?

How can I get my Windows partition to show up as C: if I reinstall?

Other solutions? Can I fix this with Partition Macig or with the partition tool in BING (Terabytes BootIt Next Generation) I dont have Partition Magic, but I plan to get BING as soon as I have my system OK.

Theres no way I will have Windows on H:

Maybe I have done something wrong when I installed the Samsung 500 GB? I just put it where the old one was, same connections.

[tepe2]

-{ Quote: "From: http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm



Go here (http://www.partition-saving.com/) and read the documentation on changing drive letters. This program lets you change letters. You need a bootable floppy or CD." }-

Thanks. Did not see your post as I was writing my second. I will have a look, but also waiting for other opinions.

[WSFuser]

see here for changing drive letters (http://www.mvps.org/marksxp/WindowsXP/driveltr.php)

I think changing the drive letter of your H drive would cause problems with Windows though. I dont even know if you would be able to change it using the above method.

[wilbertnl]

It sounds like you installed Windows XP while the external drive was online.
That results in unexpected drive letter assignments.
It's better to disconnect the external drive, before you install Windows again.

[tepe2]

-{ Quote: "see here for changing drive letters (http://www.mvps.org/marksxp/WindowsXP/driveltr.php)

I think changing the drive letter of your H drive would cause problems with Windows though. I dont even know if you would be able to change it using the above method." }-

In Windows Disc Management I cannot change the H: because H: is my system partition. I also think changing this letter will cause problems. Thats why I think the best thing to do is to get this straight during installation. But I dont know how. And I dont know why C: became H:

[tepe2]

-{ Quote: "It sounds like you installed Windows XP while the external drive was online.
That results in unexpected drive letter assignments.
It's better to disconnect the external drive, before you install Windows again." }-

I am not sure, but I do believe my ext hd was disconnected. And the letters of my ext hd is J,K,L,M. But I do remember that a card reader was connected, but this has no drive letter. Maybe I should disconnect everything and reinstall?

[wilbertnl]

-{ Quote: "I am not sure, but I do believe my ext hd was disconnected. And the letters of my ext hd is J,K,L,M. But I do remember that a card reader was connected, but this has no drive letter. Maybe I should disconnect everything and reinstall?" }- You could start the installation disk and continue until you see the partitions and need to decide where to install Windows.
At that point you still can cancel the installation, but with all external drives/memory cards connected, you are able to see what is happening. Then try the same with everything disconnected.
It helps if your partitions have clear names (name the J: partition J, for example)
Just don't continue with the installation yet.

[tepe2]

I tried. And this is what I get:

With ext hd and usb smartcardreader connected:

C: Partition 1 (Osp) NTFS 39998 MB
I: Partition 2 (Dok) NTFS 436940 MB

Osp is what I called the system part with Windows on
Dok is what I called the empty part ment for documents,music etc.

The letters on the ext hd is D,J,K,L

With ext hd and usb-stuff disconnected:

C: Partition 1 (Osp) NTFS 39998 MB
H: Partition 2 (Dok) NTFS 436940 MB

So what shall I do? Let the ext hd and usb-stuff stay disconnected and reinstall? If so, should I let the largest partition for documents be, and format the Osp partition before install?

[wilbertnl]

So, it looks like the primary partition of the boot disk is assigned 'C:' in any case. Did you by accident install Windows on your data partition?

I would make sure that you install on C: and [quick] format that partition. To make sure that you don't get confused in the setup, I would first name the system partition clearly (for example 'format_this').

After Windows is installed, it's easy to change the letter assignments of the other partitions.

[tepe2]

No, I did not install Windows on the data partition.

It should be easy to install Windows in the right partition, because of the difference in size. 39 GB vs 426 GB. And I have named the smallest partition "Osp" which means OS and programs. And the largest partition "Dok" for documents, music...

Thank you:)

I will get on with the job now, and come back to tell you about the result. Probably tomorrow.

[Ice_Czar]

-{ Quote: " unexpected drive letter assignments" }-

factors
level 1: BIOS boot order
level 2: Bus\physical configuration (master/slave)
level 3: Device type
level 4: partition type

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_letter_assignment

1. Assign the drive letter 'A' to the boot floppy, and 'B' to the secondary floppy.
2. Assign a drive letter, beginning with 'C' to the first active primary partition recognized upon the first physical hard disk.
3. Assign subsequent drive letters to the first primary partition upon each successive physical hard disk drive, if present within the system.
4. Assign subsequent drive letters to every recognised logical partition, beginning with the first hard drive and proceeding through successive physical hard disk drives, if present within the system.
5. Assign subsequent drive letters to any RAM Disk.
6. Assign subsequent drive letters to any additional floppy, CD/DVD drives.

also see
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=168772 (post 22)
specifically forcing some partitions down below the dynamic assignment of letters to preserve forwarding

[tepe2]

Im back!

I have done a reinstall now, and things are better now

Windows are now at my C: partition.

But theres another "problem". I go to Disc Manager in Windows, and try to change my "Dok" H: to D: where I want MyDocuments, but this H: partition is now a System partition. So I can not change this drive letter.

My C: where Windows is installed seems to be a logical partition. H: is a primary partition.

It says like this:

C: 39,05 GB NTFS OK (Oppstart)
Dok H: 426,70 GB NTFS (System)

I have Norwegian Windows, and (Oppstart) means something like startup or boot.

C: is light blue, which means logical and
H: is dark blue, which means primary

My Dok H: is empty. I have documents and music on my external hd. So what shall I do? Format or delete H:? When I right click at this partition, the delete and format options are greyed out so I can not choose this.

Edit: Forgot to mention that my DVD-RAM now is D:

[wilbertnl]

Somehow the letter C: is assigned to a logical partition, where H: is your primary partition.
You would find ntdetect and boot.ini hidden in H:\, I assume?

Hm.

I would backup my data and reinstall, but this time delete all partitions and just create a 40 GB C: partition.
Somehow your partition table is causing confusing results, although it doesn't matter for Windows to function properly.

[tepe2]

I dont find ntdetect and boot.ini in H: Have used the "show hidden files"-option.

Can I delete both partitions from the XP installation CD, and then create a new partition of 40 GB, before reinstall?

Whats the difference between primary and logical?

Can I, from Windows or Dos, format the entire hd before I put in my XP inst.CD?

[wilbertnl]

-{ Quote: "I dont find ntdetect and boot.ini in H: Have used the "show hidden files"-option." }- You need to disable 'Hide protected operating system files (recommended)' which you find below 'show hidden files'
When you run CMD.exe you could also try 'c:\>dir h:\ /a'.

By design a hard disk can contain a maximum of 4 primary partitions.
To overcome this limit you can create an extended partition which can hold an unlimited amount of logical partitions. Functionally they are the same, but older operating systems, like MS-DOS require to be installed in the first primary partition. Some components of Windows XP still need to be installed in the first primary partition. Most users install Windows complete in the first primary partition.

Print this for in bed: http://www.terryscomputertips.com/computers/primary-partitions-extended-partitiions-and-logical-partitions.php

[tepe2]

You are right, I can see them now.

Thank you so much for all your help :)

I will try to delete all partitions and reinstall again. Tomorrow after work. Time to find the bed now. And hopefully I can come back tomorrow to tell you everything is all right :)

[Ice_Czar]

Logical partitions are actually in an extended partition which is itself dependent on the primary is a child of, loose that primary and the pointers to the extended and subsequently to all the logical partitions are broken.

natively under Windows your allowed 4 primary or 3 primary and one extended
you can get around that with a boot manager however.

your system partition by definition is a primary partition with the master boot record (MBR) which points to the bootstrap code ntldr (NT loader) which checks where the OS(s) are installed by refering to the boot.ini and then forwards to the intsall selected (if there are more than one) to start the ntoskrnl.exe (the OS kernel, which takes it from there)

its all a chain, the reason your limited to 4 partitions is there is only that much room allocated to write their descriptions, thus it has to pass off to another location to define the location of additional extended partitions.

A boot manager usurps the normal definition area for the 4 partitions to forward to its own area to deal with as many primary partitions as you want (with different filesystems as well, mixing Linux, Windows, Plan 9 :P)

[ErikAlbert]

My system looks like this :
A: = floppy drive
C: = system partition (Windows + Applications) = internal harddisk #1 (the C of Cystem)
D: = data partition (personal data, email, ...) = internal harddisk #2 (the D of Data)
E: = backup partition (ATI images, FDISR archived snapshots) = external harddisk (the E of external)
F: = CD/DVD drive.

I did all this with Windows and if the letter was wrong I changed it via Windows :
Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / Disk Management :
right click on the partition and use "Change Drive letter ..."
What I never do is something like this A,C,D,E,X, because Windows seems to have a problem, when the letters aren't in sequence , my X was back to F after reboot.

[wilbertnl]

-{ Quote: "What I never do is something like this A,C,D,E,X, because Windows seems to have a problem, when the letters aren't in sequence , my X was back to F after reboot." }- I assigned W: to my DVD+RW and I never had problems.

188553

[tepe2]

-{ Quote: "Somehow the letter C: is assigned to a logical partition, where H: is your primary partition.
You would find ntdetect and boot.ini hidden in H:\, I assume?

Hm.

I would backup my data and reinstall, but this time delete all partitions and just create a 40 GB C: partition.
Somehow your partition table is causing confusing results, although it doesn't matter for Windows to function properly." }-

I have done so. Deleted all partitions, and created a 40 GB C: partition, and it looks ok. (I have done nothing else, not installed drivers or anything. Im using an old computer right now just to write this post.)

I now have:

A: Floppy
C: Windows
D: DVD-RAM
E,F,G,H removeable discs

Disc management says:

C: 40 GB OK (System)
Unassigned 425,72 GB (properties - cap:476938 MB, 435936 MB Free)

So what to do now? Probably this?:

1. With disc manager create new primary partition maximum size?
2. Change DVD-RAM drive letter from D to something else?
3. Change new partition drive letter to D?
4. And when I connect the ext hd I can change its drive letter to E if this is what I want?

[wilbertnl]

-{ Quote: "1. With disc manager create new primary partition maximum size?
2. Change DVD-RAM drive letter from D to something else?
3. Change new partition drive letter to D?
4. And when I connect the ext hd I can change its drive letter to E if this is what I want?" }- If you want to assign D: to your second partition, then you need to rename the current D: (DVD-RAM) first.
Yes, you are able to reassign different letters to your liking.

It looks like you fixed the confusion with H: and C:. :thumb:

[tepe2]

Yes I think my problems are solved:)

Thank you, thank you, and thank you again and again and......

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "I assigned W: to my DVD+RW and I never had problems.

188553" }-
I accepted my F, instead of X and didn't want to spend time to do better.
F or X doesn't really matter to me, both are letters and my computer is working fine.
When I reinstall my computer, I will try again.

[wilbertnl]

-{ Quote: "F or X doesn't really matter to me, both are letters and my computer is working fine." }-
That is true, but when I add a partition, internal or external, I don't want the DVD to get a different letter, some applications (even Windows setup and Office 2000) don't know how to act when drive letters change.

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "That is true, but when I add a partition, internal or external, I don't want the DVD to get a different letter, some applications (even Windows setup and Office 2000) don't know how to act when drive letters change." }-
OK. Nevertheless thanks for showing me that it can be done, using a letter like X or W is possible, because I had the impression that it wasn't possible at all. :)

[tepe2]

I did change my DVD-RAM to W right now.

To avoid another reinstall I just have to ask another question.

I should choose "primary", not "extended" right? Of course "logical" is not possible now.

Dont know if it matters, but in the near future I want to learn to use BING to backup and to manage the partitions. I dont think I will ever have more than 4 partitions, but who knows?

[Ice_Czar]

1. its 4 partition per HDD (or array) natively under windows

2. youd have to create an extended partition inorder to create a logical drive within it

3. create the primary ;) 0% chance of loosing the partition because you deleted another partition,
unlike what can happen if you delete a primary the extended is a child to.

[tepe2]

-{ Quote: "1. its 4 partition per HDD (or array) natively under windows

2. youd have to create an extended partition inorder to create a logical drive within it

3. create the primary ;) 0% chance of loosing the partition because you deleted another partition,
unlike what can happen if you delete a primary the extended is a child to." }-

1. Thanks
2. Yes, I knew that but thanks anyway
3. Thanks, I think I go for a primary partition for my data. And I will leave some space, say a couple of GB, unpartitioned. Im sure I need it one day.

[Ice_Czar]

here is a useful diagram that illustrates the chain of pointers ;)

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/art-partition-recovery.htm
(lots more info, and pics, but Ive never used that ap)

http://i7.tinypic.com/4d68fbd.gif

(1) Features primary volumes only, with no extended partitions present.
(2) Features one primary volume and one logical drive with the simple (non-chained) extended partition record
(3) Presents the example containing one primary volume and two extended volumes (extended partition records are chained)

in the event the forum search feature is ever employed :P

[tepe2]

Now Im finish, so far.

At last, I have:

Floppy (A:)
WXP (C:) primary NTFS 40 GB (System) for Windows and Applications
Dok (D:) primary NTFS 425 GB for Data, Music, Pictures, Documents...
DVD-RAM (W:)
Removeable Discs E,F,G,H
I have 698 MB unassigned

When I connect my ext hd I rename it Ext (E:)

But first I find out how to move the MyDocuments folder to D:, then restore all my data from ext hd to MyDocuments on D:

Then I format my ext hd, because this now has 4 partitions, and I want only one big partition named Ext (E:). My ext is for backing up my data.

And then I can find out more about BING, IFW and IFD.

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "
But first I find out how to move the MyDocuments folder to D:, then restore all my data from ext hd to MyDocuments on D:
" }-
I didn't move any folder from my system partition to my data partition, except for Firefox and Thunderbird.
For both softwares I moved their folder "profiles" to my data partition (cut/paste) and edited their file "profiles.ini" on the system partition with Notepad to tell both softwares where their folder "profiles" is.

For the other softwares, I changed their folder settings, so that they know where to store output-files on my data partition. I created my own folders on my data partition for these softwares.

Of course you can move the folder "My documents" with TweakUI or something else, but that won't work for Firefox/Thunderbird.

After that all your personal files, bookmarks, emails and email-addressbooks are stored on the data partition and that means you have TOTAL FREEDOM on your system partition without being worried about your data anymore. I'm glad I did this. Very reassuring.

I work this way since March 2006 and I have no problems with upgrading Firefox/Thunderbird.

[tepe2]

I use MozBackup to backup Firefox and Thunderbird settings, bookmarks, email... and the backup files I store in MyDocuments at D:

But thank you, I have learned something new, and I might try it.

-{ Quote: "For the other softwares, I changed their folder settings, so that they know where to store output-files on my data partition. I created my own folders on my data partition for these softwares." }-

This could be a lot of work if you have, use, and try out a lot of software. But I might try with one or two.

As for moving MyDocuments, I changed the path from C:...to D:.... at my old system, and it worked. Dont know if this is the smartest way but...

I shall create an user account for my girlfriend too, and also move her folder to D:

[ErikAlbert]

Tepe,
OK man, it doesn't really matter how you do it. The main thing is that all your DATA is moved to another partition.

BTW moving folders of Firefox/Thunderbird, like I described, is explained by Mozilla itself on their websites.
So I didn't invent this procedure, Mozilla did.
The advantage is no extra backup software. I only use Acronis for system and data partition.

[tepe2]

Agree

I believe this thread has come to an end

And again, thanks to all of you, for your helpful replies :)