PDA

View Full Version : How can I accomplish this?

lkingpinl
April 29th, 2009, 01:51 PM
I have a laptop with two HDD's, one with XP Pro 32 bit, the other with XP Pro 64bit. I can boot into each just fine using the OS Selector. However, how do I do it so that no matter which OS I am using, the only drive letter I see is C: drive? Currently I see C: (64bit) and E: (32bit). This causes me issues with software I need to run that I can't explain here.
MudCrab
April 29th, 2009, 02:09 PM
Are the C: and E: drive letters the same regardless of which OS is booted? For example: When you boot into XP 32-bit, C: is assigned to the XP 32-bit partition and E: is assigned to the XP 64-bit partition. When you boot into XP 64-bit, C: is still assigned to the XP 32-bit partition and E: is still assigned to the XP 64-bit partition.

Was the dual-boot installation originally setup using the XP boot manager?
lkingpinl
April 29th, 2009, 02:49 PM
That is correct. Regardless of which OS is booted C: and E: are the same. In my case, C: is the 64 bit and E: is the 32 bit.
MudCrab
April 29th, 2009, 04:34 PM
Trying to change the drive letter used for the Windows partition after it's installed is not something I would recommend. I'm sure there are guides if you Google for it, but the system may not be as stable or something may get missed.

Do you have a problem reinstalling XP 32-bit? If that would work for you, hide the XP 64-bit partition, set the XP 32-bit partition Active and then reinstall. I would also let XP reformat the partition (a quick format is fine) during the installation.