Dual Boot Drive Letter Change

D

DNez2001

Member
I have seen similar posts, but nothing that I have recognized will work for me.

I have a dual boot system with 3 partiitions. Partition 0 is Vista 64, Partion 1 is data, Partition 2 is XP. Vista 64 was installed first.

Under Vista, drives show up as desired: P0 is Drive C, P1 is Drive D, P2 is Drive X
Under XP, drives show up differently: P0 is Drive C, P1 is Drive D, P2 is Drive F:

What I would like under XP is for P0 to be Drive V, P1 to be Drive D, and P2 to be Drive C, so that Windows and all programs installed under the particular operating system are installed on "drive C" so as not to cause problems.

Any ideas on a solution? I tried the Microsoft answer of changing registry settings, but XP would no longer complete the boot process, and I have to reinstall XP on P3.

Thanks for any assistance.
 
Hi DNez2001, welcome to NST

The registry fix is only for broken systems. Using it on a non-broken system will break it. My best answer for you is oldest to newest. XP will stay C: if you install it first there while newer versions of Windows when installed by booting from thier installation media will automatically consider themselves C: when you boot into them.
 
kairozamorro said:
My best answer for you is oldest to newest. XP will stay C: if you install it first there while newer versions of Windows when installed by booting from thier installation media will automatically consider themselves C: when you boot into them.
Click to expand...

I booted from the XP installation CD and installed XP on P2 after Vista64 was already installed on P0 and P1 was created and loaded with data. The install CD saw P3 as F: when installing. Did I install XP incorrectly? Is there a fix? Can I reinstall just XP, or do I have to reinstall Vista64 also (please not this - too much downtime and work).
 
My XP also installed as D: though I booted from the XP CD, presumably because it could "see" the Vista on C:.
If your XP is being installed on a 2nd HDD, you could always temporarily disconnect the Vista disk while you do the install, but if you're installing to a partition on the same disk, you could try temporarily "hiding" the Vista partition with gParted or similar during the XP install.
I don't mind Vista being C: and XP being D: whichever one is booted. That appeals to my sense of neatness, but you could try the "hide" if you like your running system always to be C:

I don't know why Vista and W7 seem to follow the rule "boot from the DVD - installs as C:", but XP doesn't ?!
 
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