Partition Why is partition letter changed in paragon

Discussion in 'Paragon Drive Backup Product Line' started by wayne alexander, Mar 12, 2012.

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  1. wayne alexander

    wayne alexander Registered Member

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    why does the letter change c to d when using paragon or acronis for that matter

    whereby it changes the partition letter (drive letter changes from c to d)

    see 4 screenshots

    REF: why is c changed to d, why is partition letter changed
     

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  2. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    This is quite usual. When booted into ANY preinstallation environment (WinPE, etc.) one cannot rely on the drive partition letters being the same as those that are assigned under your fully installed and configured Windows set-up.

    The reasons are technical and related to longstanding old "rules of precedence" for partition handling on start-up. But that is why it's very important to assign "labels" to all of your physical drive partitions so that they can be identified regardless of the letters that may be assigned by various "rescue and recovery" start-up operations. Otherwise, you risk backing up, restoring, cloning, etc. to the wrong place which can be disastrous -- and, unfortunately, has been for some people I know.

    __
    P.S.: The issue can generally (but not always) be avoided with a single partition per hard drive IF the letter assignments correspond to the physical drive booting precedence assigned by the system BIOS. Possibly feasible with today's HD prices, but I still wouldn't count on it absolutely. Hot swap bays, eSATA, and so forth, would still throw an occasional monkey wrench into the works.
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2012
  3. SIW2

    SIW2 Registered Member

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    Don't worry, As Arvy pointed out - it is perfectly normal to see different drive letters from the boot media.

    That is because Windows pe assigns it's own drive letters when you boot it up - they are nothing to do with the letters you see when you are booted into Windows itself.
     
  4. TheMozart

    TheMozart Former Poster

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    Only the FREE version does this for me, the COMPACT Edition doesn't.
     
  5. SIW2

    SIW2 Registered Member

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    As far as I know , the free version does not come with any kind of boot disc.

    It reboots into paragon blue screen mode.


    The Compact Edition comes with a Linux disc , I believe.
     
  6. Vern Ola

    Vern Ola Registered Member

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    I am sorry for some redundancy, but I did not see my exact issue. I purchased HDM Suite last year. I just needed to restore an image. I booted from the boot disk, and as previously stated here, it assigned the wrong drive letter to my C: drive when selecting where to restore to...it named it the D drive. It then gave the option of assigning a drive letter to the restored partition, but C: was nor available. I am concerned about renaming the drive, because, it may mess with programs and Win7 activation.
    Am I missing something? Is there something else I need to do?
    Thanks for your help.
    Vern
     
  7. SIW2

    SIW2 Registered Member

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    Windows pe assigns drive letters in the order it finds the volumes - listing primaries first , starting with the letter C and continuing thru the alphabet.

    Windows does that - not Paragon.

    The letters assigned by winpe have nothing to do with the letters inside the registry of your windows installation on the hard drive.

    You need to use the volume label ( the name you gave each drive ) to make sure you are working on the correct one.
     
  8. Vern Ola

    Vern Ola Registered Member

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    Ok, so if I am sure to use the correct volume label, even though the letter is wrong, when Windows reboots the drive letters will be correct? Then what to do with the assign drive letter box? Leave it unselected?
    Thanks
     
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