Drive letter changed after resizing

[ryansbud]

Hi

I resized my Windows Partition using Gparted. The resize worked, but then windows changed the drive name from F: to C:.
Previously nothing was C:

Now because it has renamed the partition, it won't let me past the windows logo. Safe made also wont allow me in.

1) Is there a way to either change the Main partition drive letter back to F:
using perhaps recovery console, or other method

OR

2) change the registry to tell it that my drive is C: now.

Thanks
Ryan

 

[NoRulez]

Try booting to recovery console.
Search for and edit the boot.ini file. The original should look something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="WinXP" /fastdetect

You can try changing the partition number or the rdisk number (if you have multiple hdd's)

Hope you made a backup before resizing the partition, as the software would have warned anyway...

 

[willirob]

I think you can change drive letters using My Computer->Manage->Disk Management

 

[James]

I think you can change drive letters using My Computer->Manage->Disk Management

Not if you can't load into windows

 

[willirob]

ah - theres the rub

 

[Syndyre]

Partition Magic used to have an option that allowed you to change drive letters in windows, sure it still does, haven't used it in a while. Know it doesn't help much but it also has recovery boot disks that might have the same option?

 

[ryansbud]

Try booting to recovery console.
Search for and edit the boot.ini file. The original should look something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="WinXP" /fastdetect

You can try changing the partition number or the rdisk number (if you have multiple hdd's)

Hope you made a backup before resizing the partition, as the software would have warned anyway...

Thanks for the responses. I have only one Hard drive active, and it now has two partitions. The first one has windows and the second just for storage. Before the resize, there was three partitions. Wondows (F), storage (D) and the other one (R). Now windows is C.

What should I change the Rdisk and partition numbers to? I'll have a look at partition magc, but it is money :-(

 

[James]

If you have an XP cd you can always try doing a repair install. When I say repair I don't mean recovery console repair, there is an option if you select new install. It is not always available however.

What the repair does is install the OS again leaving all your documents and settings intact.

 

[The_Techie]

That repair option has never worked for me

 

[willirob]

hey just had an idea- try call Microsoft support...

Is there such a thing?

 

[Jonny Two Shoes]

In win2000 recovery console you can type: Fixboot C:

I don't know if it will work for XP.

 

[Jonny Two Shoes]

Or try bootcfg /rebuild in the recovery console.

 

[NoRulez]

Thanks for the responses. I have only one Hard drive active, and it now has two partitions. The first one has windows and the second just for storage. Before the resize, there was three partitions. Wondows (F), storage (D) and the other one (R). Now windows is C.

What should I change the Rdisk and partition numbers to? I'll have a look at partition magc, but it is money :-(

If only one disk, leave as is. Seeing that there's only 2 partitions left you have either 1 or 2 which can be tried in boot.ini which doesn't see a physical drive letter, but rather a partition number.
The repair route basically tries to reinstall a fresh copy of windows with the option of specifying a new install directory.