Change System Partition Drive Letter

[ghines]

Hi Everyone,

I don't believe my request is possible but I'll ask it anyhow just in case someone has found a solution.

My single hard drive PC had XP x64 installed with the following drive letter configuration:-

Partition 1 - C Drive with a label of BOOT
Partition 2 - D Drive with a label of DATA

Now I create 2 more physical partitions and install Vista x64 in a dual boot configuration.

If I boot into XP now the drive letters are:-

Partition 1 C - BOOT
Partition 2 D - XP Data
Partition 3 V - Vista
Partition 4 Z - Vista Data

Booting into Vista:-

Partition 1 D - BOOT (system/boot partition)
Partition 2 Z - XP Data
Partition 3 C - Vista
Partition 4 X - Vista Data

I want to be able to swap the Drive Letters D and X so that D is always the Data partition for each OS.

As I said I don't think this is possible but if someone knows a way please let me know.

TIA,

Greg

[Computer Guru]

With a partition manager like PartitionMagic or Disk Director it's possible. Otherwise, I don't think so.

[MerlinsWand]

Originally Posted by ghines

Hi Everyone,

I don't believe my request is possible but I'll ask it anyhow just in case someone has found a solution.

My single hard drive PC had XP x64 installed with the following drive letter configuration:-

Partition 1 - C Drive with a label of BOOT
Partition 2 - D Drive with a label of DATA

Now I create 2 more physical partitions and install Vista x64 in a dual boot configuration.

If I boot into XP now the drive letters are:-

Partition 1 C - BOOT
Partition 2 D - XP Data
Partition 3 V - Vista
Partition 4 Z - Vista Data

Booting into Vista:-

Partition 1 D - BOOT (system/boot partition)
Partition 2 Z - XP Data
Partition 3 C - Vista
Partition 4 X - Vista Data

I want to be able to swap the Drive Letters D and X so that D is always the Data partition for each OS.

As I said I don't think this is possible but if someone knows a way please let me know.

TIA,

Greg

Yeah. I can see how that might be a problem. I'm not sure there's a simple solution.

[Computer Guru]

Welcome to NST, Merlin... nice to have you onboard

[Toaster]

Have you tried Disk Management?

Start, Run, then type compmgmt.msc then hit enter, then click on Disk Management then right click the drive you want to change the Letter or Path and do so, C:\ maybe the awkward one but then again you could just leave that as I cant see any point in changing that letter, this also saves buying any third party software.

[Terry60]

Hi toaster,
the difficulty is that ghines wanted d=data on both systems, and you can't change the active system (in one of the boots that is D:\)

[Toaster]

Originally Posted by Terry60

Hi toaster,
the difficulty is that ghines wanted d=data on both systems, and you can't change the active system (in one of the boots that is D:\)

I see it now.

Slave drive it is then, thats the only feasible way I can see.