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Drive letter changed in disk management

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6 replies

by jimmy_diem

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I have a pc on the bench which the c: drive was
changed to e: drive.
How can I change back? I can see drives when I attempt to install new copy of xp pro,
I'd like to save and not format.

6 replies

by wcp

How was the C: drive changed?

If it was C: originally, something happened. Please post more information on your system and what software (or hardware) were installed before the change occurred.
Possible solution: System restore

This could have happened when you had a removable device (Zip drive or card reader) when Windows XP Pro was installed. Sometimes (not always) Windows XP (Pro or Home) treats removable devices as HDs and assigns one of those as C:.
Options:
1. Leave it the way it is. In most cases, this is O.K. However, there may be programs that must be installed in C: and there?s no solution to this.

2. Clean install Windows. Backup your data and disconnect Zip (or card reader) before Windows installation and then connect it (them).

http://tinyurl.com/g21o ?Drive Letters Change Unexpectedly When You Install Windows XP?

http://tinyurl.com/anb8s ?How To Restore the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows?

http://tinyurl.com/acd67 ?Unable to Log on if the Boot Partition Drive Letter Has Changed?

by wcp

Backup data before you do any.

1. Do system restore.
2. Can you access C:? If there’s nothing in it, you may use an image program (e.g. Norton Ghost) and ghost E: partition to C: Make sure the C: is Active (bootable).
3. Boot from Window 98 Startup disk and run “Fdisk /mbr” without the quotes.
4. If time is of essence, instead of trying to figure out what happened and how to correct them, clean install Windows. If there’s any Zip or card reader, disconnect them before installation.

by jimmy_diem

This pc was built and installed with windows
xp pro with 3 partitions c,d,e...
However the cust called and stated that she could not access e: drive.
I tried to walk her through disk manager/ manage
to see if e was formated, well I don't know what she did after that, because I told her to bring pc to me.
So this mishap occured durning that time.
Now when I see the drives...
C:\new volume
d:\new volume
e:\windows

by howie.erickson

In Windows XP go into Administrative Tools and Computer Management. Under Disk Management, remove the Drive letters for C: and D: then change the E: drive to C:. Next set the drive letters of the other two partitions.

Hope this helps!

Howie

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