setting drive letters in XP

from WinCustomize Forums
i have just got my new machine (happy happy happy) and am trying to set up a dual boot on it.

it came with winXP, so i have decided to try it.

my basic plan is to have 3 partitions. win98 on the first small partition (for old games, testing, etc). winXP on the second partion, and a 3rd data partition.

so, i created the first partition and installed win98. no problems.

i then installed winXP, creating the second and third partitions during setup.

when i boot into winXP the drive letters are all strange though.

c: - partition 1, win98, good
d: - my dvd drive
e: - my cd-rw drive
f: - partition 2, winXP
g: - partition 3

what i wanted was winXP installed to D: and the data partiton as E:

winXP wont let me change the drive letter on its own partition, so i cannot change the drive letters to how i want them. i could do this in win2k though *confused*

does anyone have any advice on what i have to do to fix this situation? i am quite happy to reinstall XP to do this.

i have considered making partitions 2 and 3 before installing winXP, but want them formatted as NTFS and dont know of anything other that winXP setup that can do this.
5,496 views 19 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Feline...you can convert to NTFS after installing XP....just type 'convert /?' [without quotes] in a command prompt for the options.
Partition Magic 7 also handles NTFS [even converts backwards to fat32].

Computer Management/Disk Management handles drive letter assigning, but I think you'll find that the OS 'must' stay where it's installed.....you can't re-assign its drive letter...
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
thanks!

i suspected it was possible to convert formats, but had'nt yet found out how.

i have found a MS knowledge base article that suggests unformatted partitions will be assigned drive letters, so it may be that simply creating the partitons with fdisk before installing will do this.

the next step up from that is to format partition 2, and then convert it after installation.

yes, already found i cannot change XP's partition letter

i have never tried partition magic 7. i have an earlier version, but had problems when formatting partitions with it. everything else i did worked fine though.

well, with any luck i will get this sorted out tonight
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The order is this:

1. first primary partition
2. extended partitions
3. cdrom and other stuff
4. other primary partitions

(or I've mixed 3 and for up)

Anyway, I think it is possible to assign a letter to your cd-drive so the other partitions will slide infront of it. Not sure though.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
thats exactly what i am trying to achieve. so should creating unformatted extended partitions be enough to get them drive letters before the cd-roms?

well, i will try it tonight and find out
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
No dummy, you should change your second and third partition into extended ones. That should do the trick. You only need a primary partition if you wish to boot (certain OSes) from it.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
i think i am getting confused now. this is why i normally leave the hardware to someone else

i thought that when partitioning a HD, the first partition was the primary partition.

then you partition the rest of the HD into a single large extended partition.

you can then sub-divide this extended partition into one or more logical partitions.

what i did when i first installed XP was to start with only one partition on the HD, which was the primary boot partition, since it holds win98 (ready for a dual boot system)

then i created two new partitions in the remaining space using the XP installer during installation. i am under the impression that since there was only one partition on the HD, the XP installer only allocated one drive letter to the HD, thus giving D and E to the two cd's.

so, if i create two (unformatted) partitions before launching the XP installer it should (hopefully) give them drive letters D and E, making the cd's F and G, letting me install XP onto drive D.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
well, for those who care (that would be me ) i may not know how partitions work on modern computers, but it has all come together, and worked wonderfully.

reinstalling XP did it, since the existing partitions were renamed, so it went straight onto drive D, which is nice
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Feline...in XP you can assign anything after 'D' inclusive to anything you wish...'A' and 'B' are reserved for floppies, and 'C' is supposed to be your primary active boot OS drive...though XP is happy to go elsewhere if chosen at install....the bootloader would still be on 'C' I expect.
My setup is
A...floppy
b...
C...XP HD NTFS
D...HD NTFS
E...Zip
F...DVD
G...Burner
H...HD NTFS
I...Image Drive

No partitioning, just physical drives...
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I have the sudden urge to list my drives. I think I've been behind the computer too long today... Anyway, my point is: I have three primary partitions and four logical/extended ones. Then again, this was done via a multitude of partitioning tools before installing XP, so I can't recall how XP handles things.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Go on, Crae...list them...you know you want to...give in to your primal urges...
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
well I will give in to my urges:

A...Floppy
B...
C...Local Disk
D...Graphics
E...DVD Drive
F...CD Drive
G...Zip

Hmmm that felt pretty good, I should give in more often
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Okay, I have urges as well. But enough about that for now...
My HDD set up is fine, but I have a DVD, CD-RW and Virtual CD (a product of having Roxio installed.) They are F, G and H respectively. I would like to reassign them to X,Y and Z. In Win98 this was trivial. Where is this functionality in Windows XP Pro? I don't see it in Disk Management.
Thanks.
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Computer Management \ Storage \ Disk Management \ right-click on the drive you want to change "Change Drive Letter and Paths..." is in the popup menu.

Obviously, you need Admin access....
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Must... resist... must... not... give... in... argh... too... strong!!

a: [flop]
b: [nope]
c: [primary/active] Apsu (winXP|2G|fat)
d: [extended/logical] Behemoth (apps|4G|fat32)
e: [extended/logical] Leviathan (stuff|4G|fat32)
f: [extended/logical] Kraken (audio|4G|fat32)
g: [extended/logical] Bahamut (iso|2G|fat32)
h: [cd-writer]
i: [cd-rom]
j: [zip]
k: [primary] Tiamat (win98|1G|fat32)
?: [primary] Jormungandr (FreeBSD|2G|?)

Tiamat and Apsu switch places depending on which one I boot into. Were I to boot into 98, Tiamat would be c: and Apsu k:. And usually my (external) zip drive is switched off, so that's one drive less. I recently installed FreeBSD on my third primary partition (which does not show up in Windows), but I've yet to set i up right. Damn thing won't recognise my USB-mouse...

Nerd levels are high today, must be monday morning.
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Jafo - Feline...in XP you can assign anything after 'D' inclusive to anything you wish

yep, found that option

it just wouldnt let me rename the boot partition, the spoil sport.

well, now it all works, i will join the fun:

a: floppy
b: none
c: win98 on 2 gig fat32
d: winXP on 8 gig NTFS
e: games and data, 48 gig on NTFS
f: dvd
g: cd-rw

one drive letter down from my old machine

/me still in shock from crae's drive list
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
hehe yeah I doubt anyone can beat the Dutchy there...
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sugarcubes.

I would never make a 48G partition, but slice things up into little 4G bits and pieces. But it's tuesday, meaning nerd levels are low today so no tech talk!
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
interesting.

/me on *lots* of chocolate

i seen to need lots of space in some places. the Diablo II game ended up with about a 2.5 gig install on my machine.

for things like this, plus my music files, big partitions can be useful.

i still like partitions to seperate out my OS's from my data though.