boot partition letter changed on install

[Moloch]

I'm trying to setup my 3200+/ 7800gt but on the drive I want to install to the first partition has taken on the C drive and I wish to install windows to parition 2 which is now assigned letter F.
Now if I could get into windows it would be easy to change the first paritions drive letter.. but since I can't get into windows what can I do?

What's shitty is I actually got windows installed with the drive letter "C" but when I plugged in my "big" drive windows gave me a ntldr missing error.

 

[Rambler]

Hm, I've read your post 3 times, yet I still don't fully understand it - must be me after long day at work.
Anyway if you want to change drive letters w/o accessing Windows, you can do that with diskpart easily.

 

[Frank]

I take it your big drive has a primary partition? You really should only make an extended partition on data drives. Can you still change that?

 

[Moloch]

I take it your big drive has a primary partition? You really should only make an extended partition on data drives. Can you still change that?

Yes I believe it is a primary.. but so is my boot partition.
Why should data drives only be extended partitions?
As for changing that how? I have like 120 or something GB of stuff of there with no where to go.
My next upgrade is a 300+ GB hdd...

Rambler, what I mean is that ya know how windows is supposed to be assigned to the "C" drive letter?
Upon plugging the power into my data drive not only did my windows install get fubared but it changed the drive letter of my windows parition.
The first partition on the drive I want to boot off took over the C drive letter, it used to be drive letter M before I installed my data drive.
I deleted my old windows partition, rebooted, made a new parition from another drive and it became the C drive letter before I plugged my data drive in.

I guess I'll just install windows and change the data drive letter.. but not after playing my fav games on it to see what goin from a 2500+ with a 6600GT to a 3200+ with a 7800GT.
I was totally set on a 6800GS untill I saw a store about 30 mins away had an evga 7800GT for 309 USD.

 

[_xxx_]

Try PartitionMagic, you can change partition types/sizes/format with it without deleting anything. It moves the data itself as needed without destroying anything.

 

[Rambler]

Ah I get it now radeonic2, in fact I had very similar problem some time ago. I think after lot of messing with it, IIRC I resolved it by marking the offending partition as not active, then installed windows on the desired drive-partition (as C).

 

[Moloch]

I guess I can try partition magic.
My boot files are of course on the C drive now.. which I use for multimedia storage.
is there an option to use a floppy withe paritition magic since i would have to reinstall since the boot files would be borked?

 

[Moloch]

hmm.. it seems some of the files (install files) on me old windows drive got corrupted..
Doing a regular error check found nothing wrong.. but now I'm scanning for bad sectors, same for the bad sector check.
So what could have happened?
The only difference is that the drive is now connected to a SATA channal via a PAta to SATA converter.
What a coincidence

 

[Frank]

The problem with Windows drive letters is, that pre-boot all primary partitions found make up the first drive letters. The first primary partition of the first drive on the first controller becomes drive C, the first primary partition on the first drive of the second controller becomes D:, and so on. And after those are all assigned, the extended (logical) partitions are tacked to the end of the list.

That happens before boot, and before Windows rearranges them again as you like them. So: try only to use a single primary partition on disks you want to boot from, and use only extended partitions on disks you don't want to boot from.

And it is definitely best to delete the first primary partition, reboot, create a new primary partition and install Windows on that one. If you want to save that partition, using Ghost or Partition Magic to move it is highly recommended.

Edit: and if you don't like the way it is going, you can manually edit boot.ini. But that's easy to do wrong, after which your system won't boot.

 

[Moloch]

The problem with Windows drive letters is, that pre-boot all primary partitions found make up the first drive letters. The first primary partition of the first drive on the first controller becomes drive C, the first primary partition on the first drive of the second controller becomes D:, and so on. And after those are all assigned, the extended (logical) partitions are tacked to the end of the list.

That happens before boot, and before Windows rearranges them again as you like them. So: try only to use a single primary partition on disks you want to boot from, and use only extended partitions on disks you don't want to boot from.

And it is definitely best to delete the first primary partition, reboot, create a new primary partition and install Windows on that one. If you want to save that partition, using Ghost or Partition Magic to move it is highly recommended.

Edit: and if you don't like the way it is going, you can manually edit boot.ini. But that's easy to do wrong, after which your system won't boot.

Lession learned
I'm goign to the store right now to get PM8.
I'm familar with editing the boot.ini file btw.

 

[suryad]

I dont think you need Partition Magic. MS XP has a builtin tool called disk management. Google it and you will find out how to start it up from the run dialog box.

 

[_xxx_]

is there an option to use a floppy withe paritition magic since i would have to reinstall since the boot files would be borked?

Yes, it comes with a utility to create boot floopies with DR-DOS and PM on them.

 

[_xxx_]

I dont think you need Partition Magic. MS XP has a builtin tool called disk management. Google it and you will find out how to start it up from the run dialog box.

DON'T use _ANY_ MS tools for partitioning and managing problematic discs! Everything else is better.