Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of smrtmoney
smrtmoney

asked on

Dual Boot PC - Win2000 & WinXP see same drive as different letter

I have a dual boot pc, c: drive is Windows XP, d: drive is Windows 2000 (looking at it from the WinXP side).  When I log on to the Windows 2000 partition the d: drive is now the e: drive.  

While this is weird, it wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that I have a program that I need to load on the Win200 side that has to be installed on the d: drive.  

I have tried the normal methods to rename drives from within Win2000 but that won't work with a boot drive.  I found this article http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;223188 - HOW TO: Restore the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows on the Microsoft site but I'm not sure if I should try this registry "fix" when I have another partition running.

Any thoughts??
Avatar of smrtmoney
smrtmoney

ASKER

Also, I have Partition Magic.  Should I load it on the 2000 side and change the drive letter that way??
Administrative Tools; Computer Management; Disk Management.  Right click on the drive & Change drive letter.

You'll need to change the existing drive letters to something higher than the highest one currently used, re-boot & then change them to what you want because windoze retains the current assignment until after a re-boot and you can't have 2 drives with the same assignment.  (You can't change C:....)

JohnT
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Rob Stone
Rob Stone
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Stoner79:

I'm probably going to follow the article, and then do a reinstall if all else fails as you suggested.  One question though.  All of the programs installed on the 2000 side are listed in the registry under the e: drive.  If I change the drive letter from e: to d:, I can't imagine that any of the programs will work.  (Maybe I could try a find and replace all in the registry to remedy that assuming that I could still log into the 2000 partition???)

thoughts?
Well you may not be able to log in to 2000 afterwards, it may go round in a loop which another article links off that main one about.
Thats when you could try the util or reinstall 2000.

Youre right about the registry and proggies. Everything will point to the wrong place but it shouldn't take too long to fix. You could do a search and replace but check every value before you do it, or better, backup the registry first using ntbackup.
Sorry, I think I may have misunderstood you.  Were you saying the drive W2K boots from is E:??

JohnT
yes, the Win2000 drive shows up as E: on the Win2000 side, though it's listed at D: when you look at it from the WinXP partition
all of my programs are listed in the registry under E: