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hdhillis

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Unable to log into Windows XP Pro after changing system drive letter

I am running Windows XP Professional SP 2. When I originally installed XP, the drive letter assigned to the hard drive was F. Today, I came across instructions to change the drive letter by modifying HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices only. After restarting the system, I get the login splash screen but no listing of login accounts.

I do not have network access to that computer. But I can boot using the installation disk and get into the recovery console. I have tried FIXMBR, but that has not solved the problem. Is there a way to modify the registry through the recovery console?
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venom96737
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sramesh2k
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You can boot up using knoppix and then use bartpe from it to edit or fix the registry or download a tool for knoppix that can edit the windows registry the same way the windows reg editor works.. this tool is called "The chntpw tool" .. here's the link to it..
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/chntpw
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r-k

You can also edit the Registry from a command line:

 http://www.petri.co.il/reg_command_in_windows_xp.htm

though the above suggestions are probably easier to work with.

As said already, you can't change the boot device letter without re-installing. See e.g.:

 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;223769
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Thanks to all who have commented. I downloaded UBCD and tried to use the offline registry editor, but it proved to be to esoteric for me to use. Then I made a BarTPE CD and used regedit to reverse my drive letter assignments using the directions at http://windowsxp.mvps.org/peboot.htm . After rebooting, I still got the blank login screen. I then tried deleting the path to userinit.exe as suggested in Q_20643424.html, and I still got the blank login screen. Finally, I deleted all the values in HKLM\System\MountedDevices as suggested in Q_20555533.html, but same story.

Is my only solution to re-install Windows XP Pro? If so, will I be able to save my data files in MyDocuments?

Believe me, I have learned a painful lesson here.
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Forgot to tell you that you have to goto safe mode with command prompt to use system restore, the following command will bring you system restore...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304449

hope this helps
sramesh2k

Thanks for the URLs. I am familiar with both. Yes, I did double-check the steps I followed.

r-k

I did boot with BartPE and went into the Command Prompt. After navigating to my user account in Documents and Settings, I could not find My Documents directory. There was a WINDOWS directory and NTUSER.DAT and reglog.txt files. Where would I find My Documents for my user account?

moh10ly

I am unable to log in under Safe Mode. Is there a way to do what you suggest when booting with BartPE?

Thank you all for your continuing suggestions.
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r-k

Thank you! A43 makes all the difference. I located My Documents and have successfully copied my data files to an external drive. Later today, I will begin the re-install of Windows XP Pro.
I would like to thank all of you that contributed suggestions. Last night, I reinstalled Win XP Pro successfully. Previous to the install, I used BartPE's A43 program to copy My Documents to an external drive. That step saved me a lot of time and grief since the re-install deleted the previous My Documents.
Excellent. Thanks for the feedback.