Changed System Drive letter in registry, now login boot occuring
Client installed Win XP on a new computer, to find that it installed to H drive letter. Client went online to work out a way of fixing this, and found http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223188 and followed the prompts to change the system drive back to C:/.
Once they did this, they found that on login to the system, either via safe mode or via normal boot, the system gave a loop between "saving your settings" and "logging on".
A little research showed me that this was due to his change of the drive letters, and I have tried and tried to work out a way of either remotely changing the registry back, or fixing the registry external to windows to allow normal boot. So far, nothing much has turned up.
I'm aware of Norton Partition Magic being able to change system drive letters quite easily, and scanning for references to the drive and changing them all. However, I cannot find a bootable version or whatever.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
So far, i cannot boot into windows at all, and there is no system restore point or registry backup. Client doesn't want to have to reinstall windows, since they have a large array of programs.
Once they did this, they found that on login to the system, either via safe mode or via normal boot, the system gave a loop between "saving your settings" and "logging on".
A little research showed me that this was due to his change of the drive letters, and I have tried and tried to work out a way of either remotely changing the registry back, or fixing the registry external to windows to allow normal boot. So far, nothing much has turned up.
I'm aware of Norton Partition Magic being able to change system drive letters quite easily, and scanning for references to the drive and changing them all. However, I cannot find a bootable version or whatever.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
So far, i cannot boot into windows at all, and there is no system restore point or registry backup. Client doesn't want to have to reinstall windows, since they have a large array of programs.
ASKER
I'd like to be able to change it back, but the only way I know of doing that is to manipulate the registry - and that cannot be done from outside windows to my knowledge. If there is a way of connecting to a remote registry (not over network) or accessing a registry file on a slave drive, then that would be helpful.
It might be dificult to restore to that registry without having a backup registry. I suggest to pop your windows xp cd and reinstall the os. You might try some registry cleaners but it is just problems down the line.
Good luck
Here are some tools. However it might not be the best idea!
http://www.ccleaner.com/
http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/registry_cleaner.htm
Good luck
Here are some tools. However it might not be the best idea!
http://www.ccleaner.com/
http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/registry_cleaner.htm
ASKER
And yes, it did make the machine inoperable, and did stuff up all the pathways.
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ASKER
I won't be able to run the registry cleaners as I cannot boot into windows properly. Any other ideas?
Do you have ERD commander by chance? With that you could boot windows from a cd and load the registry to make the appropriate changes. If not you are going to have to find a way to load the registry on the system either by a parallel installation of windows, moving the drive to a working windows computer, or a livecd and editing the registry to correct the changes that were made.
The only approved way of changing the drive letter of the boot drive is to re-install.
Disconnect any external drives, usb devices, card readers etc and to a fresh re-install, using the partition manager built into the set-up program to delete any existing partitions and install Windows again - its the only way.
Disconnect any external drives, usb devices, card readers etc and to a fresh re-install, using the partition manager built into the set-up program to delete any existing partitions and install Windows again - its the only way.
you can load the hive as described above and you MAY get it working again for me though once this has happened teh problems that could be seen further down teh line would negate teh benefit of a short term fix, whilst i appreciate that the user has apps installed and it might take a bit longer to format and reinstall better doing teh one job now than finding more and more issues as time goes by due to teh system drive letter change
ASKER
Where in UBCD is regedit? I cannot seem to find it. I've used UBCD before... it's pretty good.
It's not in the built-in tools, because it's part of Windows. But you can access it through the Run dialog box off the UBCD4Win "start menu". See the first screenshot on this page:
http://www.ubcd4win.com/screen.htm
http://www.ubcd4win.com/screen.htm
ASKER
LeeTutor:
Yours seems to be the most effective answer so far. I have now got access to the registry editor. I'm just trying to work out how to edit and save the local disc registry - it's not as easy as it looks at the start.
I'm pretty sure I need to use the "registry editor - remote program", and navigate it to the local disc. Once I'm there, where do I go in particular?
Cheers
Yours seems to be the most effective answer so far. I have now got access to the registry editor. I'm just trying to work out how to edit and save the local disc registry - it's not as easy as it looks at the start.
I'm pretty sure I need to use the "registry editor - remote program", and navigate it to the local disc. Once I'm there, where do I go in particular?
Cheers
I agree leetutor's answer will work in the short term but please comsider teh long term inplications of a modified system drive letter, its not worth the hassle IMHO
ASKER
All I'm doing is changing it back to what it was - the modification corrupted the system, I'm trying to recover it.
ASKER
Still having trouble trying to access the remote registry - doesn't appear to be saving.
You are using Load Hive (and naming it) before editing a registry key, then choosing Unload Hive before exiting the registry editor? Any changes will not be saved if you don't unload the hive first...
jbuzzard, any feedback?
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Sorry to all, been away for a few days.
@ leetutor - thanks, UBCD4Win was good, and allowed me to fix the fault - but it still caused corruption in the registry elsewhere - don't know exactly what.
@ noxcho - I'll look at Partition Manager and see whether that works on a different computer I'm having a similar problem with.
I've reinstalled windows on the primary computer. I tried to do a repair install, but it left many programs disfunctional...
Cheers to all for the help
@ leetutor - thanks, UBCD4Win was good, and allowed me to fix the fault - but it still caused corruption in the registry elsewhere - don't know exactly what.
@ noxcho - I'll look at Partition Manager and see whether that works on a different computer I'm having a similar problem with.
I've reinstalled windows on the primary computer. I tried to do a repair install, but it left many programs disfunctional...
Cheers to all for the help
You might be able to move th e system drive letter back to H which would then allow you to boot just reverse teh above. if that fails and no back ups then you may well be looking at a reformat