Renaming disk drive

Your computer must [i]see[/i] the removable drive before it can assign or change a drive letter.

Once you have connected the device, you will see it in the Disk Management submenu, and you can change the drive letter. I believe you can change the volume label in Explorer by right-clicking the drive and renaming it.

As for the 2nd question, I'm going to defer that to other more knowledgeable TR members.

Please post back in this thread if the glitch persists.

Rick/Portland, OR

You must change the drive letter in the Disk Management submenu:

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management

Right-click the removable disk, and select another drive letter from the drop-down menu. When you change the drive letter, you will get a warning notice that your computer will explode. Ignore the warning notice.

Rick/Portland, OR

You may need to temporarily re-assign the letters of other drives to free up a drive letter.

It's aggravating, but devices such as printers now come with multiple card ports that usurp zillions of drive letters.

So, decide what letters you need, determine what drive is already assigned that letter, and arbitrarily re-assign that drive a non-conflicting letter. You can fix up the mess later.

Please post back if you need further help.

Rick/Portland, OR

P.S. - Don't try reassigning the drive letter to the internal hard drive ('C' drive). If that drive is partitioned, the next letter ('D') will be assigned to the 2nd partition. If so, that letter is committed - don't try to change it.

I know these recommendations work fine in Windows XP Professional and Windows XP MCE. My experience with Vista is quite limited.

If you are running Vista, stay tuned, because other TR consultants will join this thread and help you resolve the glitch.

Rick/Portland, OR

If you are logged in with less than [i]Administrator[/i] privileges, you cannot change drive letters in Disk Management.

You might try logging in under [i]Administrator[/i] rather than your User Account and see if this works.

Also, check to see if the Group Policy Editor prevents re-assigning drive letters. To access the Policy Editor, type gpedit.msc in the Run menu and look for any permissions restrictions.

Rick/Portland, OR

I see that you are running XP Home. I don't think XP Home supports a Group Policy Editor. But there is a work-around, and you definitely should have this functionality.

Download and install TweakUI from Microsoft:

http://tinyurl.com/2meyw

This is not a fix for the glitch, but it should give you hugely enhanced functionality. Just perusing the list of changes you can make with the Policy Editor is the equivalent of a Masters Degree in Computer Science (well, a bit of hyperbole perhaps...)

Rick/Portland, OR

1) Did you try logoff/login after changing the drive letter?

2) Did you try rebooting after changing the drive letter?

3) Since you obviously have a working Internet connection, you can download TweakUI to a USB flash drive and install it that way

Sorry I couldn't resolve the problem for you, but I've exhausted my fund of ideas, and I must step aside for someone smarter to come to your rescue.

I worked in Tuscon, Nogales and Sonoita once upon a time. Once, after jogging ~15 minutes in Tuscon, I felt inexplicably exhausted, only to learn on the News that the temperature was 114 degrees...

Rick/Portland, OR

because the Product Key is tied to your Notebook and not your Desktop I think that it would be easier to reinstall with the proper XP CD and use the Product Key that was supplied.

If you remove the Front Panel USB connector from the Motherboard before you install XP you will be able to change your Drive Letters and have them configured using nepenth0's suggestions. Change D: to E: first and then insert your second hard drive. It should be automatically allocated D: if not you know how to change it now. Leave the drive connected and reconnect the Front Panel USB. The new letters should be F: G: H: I:.

You can change the Key with a Product called Key Finder available here but be warned IE may not open this URL and then you'll need Firefox to download it.

http://tinyurl.com/5bhprj

But be aware this will only work if you have the Same version of XP not XP Home OEM on one computer, XP Pro OEM, a version of XP that is a Volume License Product or Media Center OEM on another. If you have different versions of XP you need to reinstall with the right XP version and Product Key. I imagine this is why you originally used the Desktop Product Key on the NB because it wouldn't accept the NB's Product Key when you where attempting to Install XP with the Desktops Install Disc. So if that is the case you'll need to find the NB Install or Recovery Disc and use it to do a Repair Install of the OS by following the directions here

http://tinyurl.com/g4bv8

If you do an Inplace Install you will keep any software that has been installed but loose any Service Packs or Hot Patches.

Of course if you are using a Restore Disc you need to start from Scratch and install the OS and Factory supplied Software from the Recovery Disc as this isn't Windows XP but a Slipstreamed copy made by the computer maker and it doesn't have all the available XP items on it.

I'll leave changing the Drive Latter's as I think that has been covered above.

Col

drive can allocated X: and the J: could be given D: but that is not quite what the OP has asked for as he wants the CD/DVD to be E:. There would be no problems doing this if there were no Front USB Panel.

As Col has pointed out he could run into problems with different Versions. It only takes a bit over 1/2 an hour to reinstall and he should be up and running within the hour with all respective Drive Letter allocations in place. This is what I would do if it were me. ;)

The other alternative is for him to remove the Front USB Panel from the motherboard, reallocate the Drive Letters and then reconnect the Front USB Panel. Then sit on the phone to M$ for an hour or so. ;)

Catch 22 :)