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OT: Drive letters and ranDUMB scrambling

My master HD is setup as follows: Part #1 DOS = C:WIN98SE; Part #2 (extended DOS) = D:WORK, E:DEVEL; Part #3 DOS = F:MASTER; Part #4 NTFS = G:WIN2K. Drive letters are always this order when it is the only drive. If i plug in a copy (Primary Slave), the Primary Master as described above almost always remains as stated. BUT. Once in a while,drive letters get scrambled and the first drive will no longer boot by itself as letters are then HD1 = J,C,D,E,N; HD2=F,K,L,M,G (name order is retained). So far, i have found it impossible to recover a scrambled drive for booting by itself.

DOS has a command SUBST for substituting a drive letter for another (or a folder). Well, now is there something like this that can be executed during boot before completion of loading all of the Windoze stuff? Alternately, a program that will ENFORCE drive letters that can be executed during boot before completion of loading all of the Windoze stuff?

Reply to
Robert Baer
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My impression is that if you explicitly change the drive names to the ones you want, c:, d:, e: etc using something like Windoze drive manager, then the names stick. Of course the system complains that the drive letter is in use, so you have to go through the rigmarole of naming them to X:, Y:, Z: or something first, then rename them again.

--
Regards, 

Adrian Jansen           adrianjansen at internode dot on dot net 
Note reply address is invalid, convert address above to machine form.
Reply to
Adrian Jansen

My impression is that if you explicitly change the drive names to the ones you want, c:, d:, e: etc using something like Windoze drive manager, then the names stick. Of course the system complains that the drive letter is in use, so you have to go through the rigmarole of naming them to X:, Y:, Z: or something first, then rename them again.

--
Regards, 

Adrian Jansen           adrianjansen at internode dot on dot net 
Note reply address is invalid, convert address above to machine form.
Reply to
Adrian Jansen

Yep. But that scheme works just fine. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

The old power tools utility had a tab for changing drive letters.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

UNLESS you add a drive with a primary partition. Remove the primary partition on all but the first drive and everyone is happy.

Reply to
krw

NOPE! See previous response.

Reply to
Robert Baer

Which power tools utility? Name? source? Thanks.

Reply to
Robert Baer

I have four primary partitions; the first is C:Win98SE which has the needed NTFS files for the dual-boot menu that Win2K created. Without that,the drive is a no-go.

Reply to
Robert Baer

I have four primary partitions; the first is C:Win98SE which has the needed NTFS files for the dual-boot menu that Win2K created. Without that,the drive is a no-go.

Reply to
Robert Baer

Robert, Have you acquired "Joerg-itis" ?>:-}

I've done that drive renaming sequence, successfully, _many_ times. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

Aha! There's the miscommunication. I skipped over Win98. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

stuff?

If you insist on using more than one drive with a primary partition it will screw with the lettering. I suspect that he's running into this, insisting that he's right and M$ is wrong and then whining about it.

Reply to
krw

Geez, you always make your life so difficult. You leave the first drive with a primary and get rid of them for all other drives, particularly ones that you want to add/subtract from the chain. If you can't do that, leave room for all of the primaries you *might* later add. The introduction of primary partitions is causing your problems. Don't do that.

Reply to
krw

I think the actual name was power toys. Here is the link for TweakUI.exe that does all the tweaking ;)

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

stuff?

"Dew Tell". Like i said, the Computer Management program does NOT allow one to alter drive letters for the boot drive as well as for the swap drive. Since one of those is the "critical" drive, one is screwed. Now, if there is a bootable system that allows access for that otherwise invisible drive ordering and allocation of swap drive,PLEASE let the world know (and how much you charge for it).

Reply to
Robert Baer

stuff?

As long as there is physically only one drive,there is never a problem. Drive letters are not altered in a given (fixed) computer environment.

  • And i have run two otherwise identical drives and had NO scrambling. Something "gets in the way" and screws the order. Repeatable examples:
1) Use GhostPE and find drive letters NEVER gets scrambled. 2) Use Acronis (clone mode) and find drive letters ALWAYS gets scrambled (in the program). In this case, one absolutely MUST POWER DOWN and disconnect the second (clone drive) to prevent disaster. 3) DriveCopy seems to act like GhostPE.
Reply to
Robert Baer

stuff?

Then how the F* can one have a multi-boot system? Like Win98SE/Win2K, or Win2K/Win7/Win7 or DOS/Win98SE/Win2K/Win7?

Reply to
Robert Baer

OOPS!! "The file

formatting link
cannot be found. Please check the location and try again."

Reply to
Robert Baer

formatting link

formatting link

Linux wouldn't cause you this grief.

Reply to
Hurtlin' Squirty

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