Vista - Cannot change drive letter

Hi,

I have a system with two SCSI drives and two SATA drives. One of the SCSI
drives is the boot
drive showing up as 'C:' drive in my system. The other SCSI is a data
drive. The two SATAs are also for data.Under 'Disk Management' in
'Computer Management', I am trying to change the drive letter of one of my
SATA drives.

This drive has data from a previous installation of Vista, however, it was
not used for system files nor was it used for page files.
Unfortunately, when I try and change the drive letter (right clicking on the
partion in the 'Disk Management' Window and then clicking 'Change Drive
Letter and Paths...),
I get the following error message:

Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your volume. This may happen if
your volume is a system or boot drive, or has pages files.

Also, the descriptor text in the partition window contains the following:
Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition). Other than my boot 'C:'drive
which says: "Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)", the
remaining drives in this PC are described as : 'Healthy (Primary
Partition)'.

I have had no trouble changing the drive letters of the one remaining SCSI
(the non C drive) and the other SATA drive.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can change that drive letter?

Thanks,
Shane

Hi,

You are booting from the sata drive (hence the 'system' designation). Until
you change it to boot from a different drive (preferably the same as the
'boot' volume), you will not be able to change that volume letter.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"no spam" <nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:O55JjV4fHHA.4980@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
>
> I have a system with two SCSI drives and two SATA drives. One of the SCSI
> drives is the boot
> drive showing up as 'C:' drive in my system. The other SCSI is a data
> drive. The two SATAs are also for data.Under 'Disk Management' in
> 'Computer Management', I am trying to change the drive letter of one of my
> SATA drives.
>
> This drive has data from a previous installation of Vista, however, it was
> not used for system files nor was it used for page files.
> Unfortunately, when I try and change the drive letter (right clicking on
> the partion in the 'Disk Management' Window and then clicking 'Change
> Drive Letter and Paths...),
> I get the following error message:
>
> Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your volume. This may happen if
> your volume is a system or boot drive, or has pages files.
>
> Also, the descriptor text in the partition window contains the following:
> Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition). Other than my boot 'C:'drive
> which says: "Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)",
> the remaining drives in this PC are described as : 'Healthy (Primary
> Partition)'.
>
> I have had no trouble changing the drive letters of the one remaining SCSI
> (the non C drive) and the other SATA drive.
> Does anyone have any ideas on how I can change that drive letter?
>
> Thanks,
> Shane

Thanks for the replies. I reinstalled Vista a couple of times to the
aforementioned SCSI drive (not the SATA drive I am having the trouble with)
and when I booted the machine up the SCSI appeared as 'C:' with the Windows
directory files and Program files etc. However, I still could not change
that SATA's drive letter. I ensured that I enabled 'view hidden files' so
that I could detect some sort of suystem files that may have inadvertantly
been installed on the SATA but could not detect any. The only files were
the data files i.e. music, pictures video and documents that I had carried
over from another machine.

The work around with this, was to disconnect the SATA drive (actually both
of them) and then reformat and reinstall Vista to the SCSI drive that I
wanted to boot from I simply repeated the process I was doing all along).
When I booted into Vista, the SCSI drive appeared with the same
configuration info as it did on the previous installations. I then shut
the machine down and connected the SATA drives. When I rebooted, I was able
to change the offending SATA drive's letter without any problem! It is a
bit quirky but now I have things the way I wanted it.

Thanks for your input,


Shane

"Rick Rogers" <rick@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:OJ95Ba4fHHA.4596@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
>
> You are booting from the sata drive (hence the 'system' designation).
> Until you change it to boot from a different drive (preferably the same as
> the 'boot' volume), you will not be able to change that volume letter.
>
> --
> Best of Luck,
>
> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
>
> "no spam" <nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:O55JjV4fHHA.4980@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have a system with two SCSI drives and two SATA drives. One of the
>> SCSI drives is the boot
>> drive showing up as 'C:' drive in my system. The other SCSI is a data
>> drive. The two SATAs are also for data.Under 'Disk Management' in
>> 'Computer Management', I am trying to change the drive letter of one of
>> my SATA drives.
>>
>> This drive has data from a previous installation of Vista, however, it
>> was not used for system files nor was it used for page files.
>> Unfortunately, when I try and change the drive letter (right clicking on
>> the partion in the 'Disk Management' Window and then clicking 'Change
>> Drive Letter and Paths...),
>> I get the following error message:
>>
>> Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your volume. This may happen
>> if your volume is a system or boot drive, or has pages files.
>>
>> Also, the descriptor text in the partition window contains the following:
>> Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition). Other than my boot
>> 'C:'drive
>> which says: "Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)",
>> the remaining drives in this PC are described as : 'Healthy (Primary
>> Partition)'.
>>
>> I have had no trouble changing the drive letters of the one remaining
>> SCSI (the non C drive) and the other SATA drive.
>> Does anyone have any ideas on how I can change that drive letter?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Shane
>

Hello Shane,

Thank you for using newsgroup!

From your post, we cannot reproduce your issue due to your complex device
environment. Meanwhile, I am glad to hear that you have found a workaround
to address this issue. If you have any other questions, please feel free to
post here.

Thanks & Regards,

Ken Zhao

Microsoft Online Support
Microsoft Global Technical Support Center

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security <http://www.microsoft.com/security>
====================================================
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--------------------
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| In-Reply-To: <OJ95Ba4fHHA.4596@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl>
| Subject: Re: Cannot change drive letter
| Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:17:05 +1000
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|
| Thanks for the replies. I reinstalled Vista a couple of times to the
| aforementioned SCSI drive (not the SATA drive I am having the trouble
with)
| and when I booted the machine up the SCSI appeared as 'C:' with the
Windows
| directory files and Program files etc. However, I still could not change
| that SATA's drive letter. I ensured that I enabled 'view hidden files'
so
| that I could detect some sort of suystem files that may have
inadvertantly
| been installed on the SATA but could not detect any. The only files were
| the data files i.e. music, pictures video and documents that I had
carried
| over from another machine.
|
| The work around with this, was to disconnect the SATA drive (actually
both
| of them) and then reformat and reinstall Vista to the SCSI drive that I
| wanted to boot from I simply repeated the process I was doing all along).
| When I booted into Vista, the SCSI drive appeared with the same
| configuration info as it did on the previous installations. I then shut
| the machine down and connected the SATA drives. When I rebooted, I was
able
| to change the offending SATA drive's letter without any problem! It is
a
| bit quirky but now I have things the way I wanted it.
|
| Thanks for your input,
|
|
| Shane
|
| "Rick Rogers" <rick@mvps.org> wrote in message
| news:OJ95Ba4fHHA.4596@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
| > Hi,
| >
| > You are booting from the sata drive (hence the 'system' designation).
| > Until you change it to boot from a different drive (preferably the same
as
| > the 'boot' volume), you will not be able to change that volume letter.
| >
| > --
| > Best of Luck,
| >
| > Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
| > http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
| > Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
| >
| > "no spam" <nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
| > news:O55JjV4fHHA.4980@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
| >> Hi,
| >>
| >> I have a system with two SCSI drives and two SATA drives. One of the
| >> SCSI drives is the boot
| >> drive showing up as 'C:' drive in my system. The other SCSI is a data
| >> drive. The two SATAs are also for data.Under 'Disk Management' in
| >> 'Computer Management', I am trying to change the drive letter of one
of
| >> my SATA drives.
| >>
| >> This drive has data from a previous installation of Vista, however, it
| >> was not used for system files nor was it used for page files.
| >> Unfortunately, when I try and change the drive letter (right clicking
on
| >> the partion in the 'Disk Management' Window and then clicking 'Change
| >> Drive Letter and Paths...),
| >> I get the following error message:
| >>
| >> Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your volume. This may
happen
| >> if your volume is a system or boot drive, or has pages files.
| >>
| >> Also, the descriptor text in the partition window contains the
following:
| >> Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition). Other than my boot
| >> 'C:'drive
| >> which says: "Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary
Partition)",
| >> the remaining drives in this PC are described as : 'Healthy (Primary
| >> Partition)'.
| >>
| >> I have had no trouble changing the drive letters of the one remaining
| >> SCSI (the non C drive) and the other SATA drive.
| >> Does anyone have any ideas on how I can change that drive letter?
| >>
| >> Thanks,
| >> Shane
| >
|
|

Hi Shane,

The problem occured because the volume on the sata drive was designated as
the active one. By temporarily removing it, the system was forced to install
the bootloader elsewhere. All you really needed to do was change the active
partition before doing a startup repair.

Keep in mind that only one volume can be designated as active, and it
doesn't have to be the one that the OS is installed on. When the BIOS passes
control to the hard drive (boot device), it goes to the active volume - this
is regardless of where the operating system is installed. It is the
bootloader here that tells the computer where the system files are located -
which volume on which hard drive - and then loads the appropriate file to
start the OS (io.sys, ntldr, winload, etc.).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"no spam" <nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:793515AA-9FA5-44EF-A4E0-CDFE1E247C71@microsoft.com...
> Thanks for the replies. I reinstalled Vista a couple of times to the
> aforementioned SCSI drive (not the SATA drive I am having the trouble
> with) and when I booted the machine up the SCSI appeared as 'C:' with the
> Windows directory files and Program files etc. However, I still could not
> change that SATA's drive letter. I ensured that I enabled 'view hidden
> files' so that I could detect some sort of suystem files that may have
> inadvertantly been installed on the SATA but could not detect any. The
> only files were the data files i.e. music, pictures video and documents
> that I had carried over from another machine.
>
> The work around with this, was to disconnect the SATA drive (actually both
> of them) and then reformat and reinstall Vista to the SCSI drive that I
> wanted to boot from I simply repeated the process I was doing all along).
> When I booted into Vista, the SCSI drive appeared with the same
> configuration info as it did on the previous installations. I then shut
> the machine down and connected the SATA drives. When I rebooted, I was
> able to change the offending SATA drive's letter without any problem! It
> is a bit quirky but now I have things the way I wanted it.
>
> Thanks for your input,
>
>
> Shane
>
> "Rick Rogers" <rick@mvps.org> wrote in message
> news:OJ95Ba4fHHA.4596@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> Hi,
>>
>> You are booting from the sata drive (hence the 'system' designation).
>> Until you change it to boot from a different drive (preferably the same
>> as the 'boot' volume), you will not be able to change that volume letter.
>>
>> --
>> Best of Luck,
>>
>> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
>> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
>> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
>>
>> "no spam" <nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:O55JjV4fHHA.4980@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I have a system with two SCSI drives and two SATA drives. One of the
>>> SCSI drives is the boot
>>> drive showing up as 'C:' drive in my system. The other SCSI is a data
>>> drive. The two SATAs are also for data.Under 'Disk Management' in
>>> 'Computer Management', I am trying to change the drive letter of one of
>>> my SATA drives.
>>>
>>> This drive has data from a previous installation of Vista, however, it
>>> was not used for system files nor was it used for page files.
>>> Unfortunately, when I try and change the drive letter (right clicking on
>>> the partion in the 'Disk Management' Window and then clicking 'Change
>>> Drive Letter and Paths...),
>>> I get the following error message:
>>>
>>> Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your volume. This may happen
>>> if your volume is a system or boot drive, or has pages files.
>>>
>>> Also, the descriptor text in the partition window contains the
>>> following: Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition). Other than my
>>> boot 'C:'drive
>>> which says: "Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)",
>>> the remaining drives in this PC are described as : 'Healthy (Primary
>>> Partition)'.
>>>
>>> I have had no trouble changing the drive letters of the one remaining
>>> SCSI (the non C drive) and the other SATA drive.
>>> Does anyone have any ideas on how I can change that drive letter?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Shane
>>
>