Resolved How do I change a volume name

Sorry I have done this before but can't remember how I did it and can't find out how to do it in my Complete Guide to Windows XP.
I have 2 hard disks both partitioned into two logical drives each.
Fot some reason Windows allocates the first partition on the primaary drive to C: (correct) but the second partition to E: instead of D:
I want to correct this but can't remember how to do it. Please help.

Also I can't remember where you set View Hidden Files.

Thanks in advance.

 

Go to My Computer > at the top: Tools > Folder Options > View tab and tick Show hidden files and folders.

A little further down, if you want to see hidden system files, uncheck Hide protected System Files and Folders.

Regards - Charles

 

jparnold, here's the deal - drive flag determiners are assesed at POST by the BIOS and the designations will generally be as follows:

The Master drive on the Primary IDE cable = C:
The Master drive on the secondary cable= D:
The secondary drive on the Primary cable= E:
The secondary drive on the Secondary cable= F:

That is the standard system. There are ways and means that can warp the system and make it do otherwise but you'll know if you are employing such as that.

Now, that is not to say that you cannot change the drive letter designations that Windows uses. That is indeed selectable. That does not change how the BIOS treats the drives, just how Windows names them and uses them.

I mention all this because it could cause some of your shortcuts to be misdirected or some program may not work properly since the Registry information won't point to the right drive letter.

Another consideration, if your system was installed when the CD drive letter was D: and you now change it to X:, you may find that when running some XP system maintenance programs they will stumble and have a problem finding the files they need.

Best to leave the drive letters as you find them unless you understand and can correct all of the ramifications of changing them.

Bottom line, if it's working - leave don't disturb it.

HTH

 

Thanks for everyones replies.

The problem with allocated drive letters is with WINDOWS not BIOS.
I have 2 hard drives and one is PARTITIONED into 2 logical drives and the other into 3 logical drives.
So BIOS sees my 2 hard drives, my CD ROM drive and my DVD drive.

This is how WINDOWS displays all of this

Primary hard drive Partition 1 C: ok
Partition 2 E: should be D: as far as I am concerned
Secondary hard drive Partition 1 D: should be E: as far as I am concerned.
Partition 2 F: ok
Partition e G: ok
CD drive H: ok
DVD drive I: ok

Does anyone know why Windows would do this?
I guess it really doesn't matter but it's just the way I think the primary drives should be C: and D: and NOT C: and E:
What do you think I should do? Forget about what I think it should be and leave it?
Regards
John

 

Hi jparnold,
Before you change things around, as Surfer dude said make sure you understand what is going on. Your original post was how to change a volume's name, which is what is usually called a label. What you want to do is change the drive Letter which has been allocated by Windows.
If anything on your system drive has been accessing data on 'D' and you change this to something else, you say 'E', you will have to correct the access paths for all access to the old 'E' and the new 'D' which could be complicated. Partition Magic has a Drive Re-mapping tool if you must change drive letters.
Good luck,

Roger.

 

Hi Guys,
Thanks for your replies.
In answer to some questions -
Yes I did make a mistake with my first description of how I have partitioned my drives.
And yes I did really mean re-assinging drive LETTERS.
ALSO I have BOTH hard drives as MASTER drives - each one is set to a master drive and each plugged into different IDE ports on the motherboard (my CD and DVD drives are both SLAVE drives). Hope you all understand that.
For example

IDE1 master Hard Drive partition 1 Windows assigned as C: drive
partition 2 Windows assigned as E: drive
slave CD drive Windows assgned as H: drive
IDE2 master Hard drive partition 1 Windows assigned as D: drive
partition 2 Windows assigned as F: drive
partition 3 Windows assigned as G: drive
slave DVD drive Windows assigned as I: drive

I guess it's just a 'thing' I have about drive letter assignments. I naturally think that drive D: is on the first master drive as it is the next letter which follows C: That's the way it used to be before I 'rebuilt' my PC using existing hard drives.

And yes I realise that if I re assign drive letters I may have to change the preferences in some applications so that saving of files goes to where I really want them saved.

Has this drive letter assignment ever happened to any other reader of this post?
Why does it happen?
Should I retrain my mind into remembering that my data files are now on drive E: (the third drive displayed in MY COMPUTER) and not D: (the second drive displayed) and that my captured video files are on D: and not E: or should I re-assign drive letters (I have the actual drive 'names' set to meaningful names anyway eg VIDEO_DAT(D: ) and DATA DISK(E: ) ?
What, if any, are the dangers of re-assigning drive letters apart from application preferences for where files are saved to?
Phew...
John

 

Hi John,

Surferdude said said it in his post - when Windows has put itself in 'C' it next looks at any other hard disk and makes the first partition it finds 'D', I think that having both HD's set as master would certainly make sure of this. I am sure that most Windows users will be used to this arrangement.

As a side comment- drive letters can cause a real complication on an OS re-install if, like me in an Alzheimers moment, you forget that you have an external USB hard disc or Zip switched on. That caused XP to be re-installed to 'F', all the other drives letters got scrambled, and a re-activation was demanded! In the end I gave up, unplugged everything except mouse, monitor, and keyboard, and re-installed. Taught me a lesson!!

Roger

 

Hi Christer
I don't know if I partitioned either drive with a master partition and the others as extended partitions, I just took the 'defaults' when partitioning during Win XP installation whatever they are.
I think that one or two others have more or less answered my questions as to why Windows assigned the drive letters it did which sounds fairly logical to me.
It is really great that I have had had so many reples and interest shown to what is really a NON problem.

 

There are not "Master" partitions.

XP will enumerate Primary Partitions on physical drives beginning with IDE0. It then looks to RAID identified devices, and then SATA. It then repeats the process enumerating Logical Volumes, (those created in any Extended Partition). The only other Partition type it will note would be "Non-DOS ". This entire process happens in the later stages of XP startup.

The first part of the XP Boot process, NTLDR, will scan the Master Boot Record (this is read by the BIOS at startup, from the first viable physical drive. In the case of floppies or other removable media, it will still read the first 512 bytes to begin the bootstrap, although a Partition Boot Record rather than an MBR is involved). It then will look at the four partition table entries found in the MBR for the one marked as "Active." It then checks to see if the "bootable" flag AA55 is present in the partition table entry. Other OS versions, such as Linux, do not care if there is any partition marked as Active or not, only that the partition table entry shows the volume as bootable.

If no entry is found as Active and Bootable, the boot fails.

Since NTLDR has no XP APIs loaded to help, it then reads the SYSTEM hive of the registry from the "System" volume it identified by scanning the MBR. (For some reason XP calls the Boot volume the "System" Volume, and the "System" volume the "Boot Volume ", despite the fact that this is completely counter-intuitive. Given when the volumes are used and identified at bootstrap, I guess there is some sense to the terminology. Since no APIs are available, NTLDR will depend on the \??\ entries found in the Mounted Devices key in the registry. Since NTLDR has no XP APIs to use, the \??\ syntax was chosen so that this frequently needed table from the registry appears first in sort order in Memory while NTLDR is running. Hey, you save a couple of milliseconds at boot because of this naming. NTLDR will depend on a low-level service it contains, the Logical Disk Manager, to make sense of the \??\ entries as it interacts with the BIOS.

Later, NTLDR will finish its various jobs, and pass control to the XP kernel. One of the things the kernel will do is to use its PnP service to resolve any disparities found between the \??\ entries in the Mounted Devices registry key, what NTDETECT found, and the DOS drive letter assignments that are found by PnP in the same registry key.

The XP PnP enumerator can act seemingly oddly in its job. The process is different under XP than under previous NT-family Windows OS versions: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825668

But the enumeration being discussed here is perfectly normal for XP. Primary Partitions are enumerated first. Then come any Logical Volumes created in an Extended partition. Then come removable devices, with the notable exception of the floppy drive assignments on A and B, which are reserved.

The issue of "Master ", slave, secondary IDE channels, etc matter not at all to XP. These are BIOS and controller concerns. What XP cares about are Primary and Extended partitions, and any Logical Volume created under an Extended Partition.

There is some debate whether XP even cares about the 'Active' status of a partition. Many claim that post-Service Pack 2 the issue is of no moment anymore. That has not been my own experience, but again I never really bothered to test the point in any detail.

Two last notes: appropriate concerns have been raised about changing drive letters by fiddling with the Mounted Devices registry entry, or more sanely, using Disk Management. XP will not permit you to modify the drive letter assignments of what it has declared as the "System" and "Boot" volumes, albeit you can do it by a registry edit of the Mounted Devices key. (These special Volumes are noted in Disk Management). So other than A, B, and the two volumes XP will not let you change, a DOS letter re-assignment is perfectly possible. But beware the above discussed potential pitfalls in doing so with MRU assignments, or plain application failures, that are perfectly possible if you get creative.

Last note: someone a while ago asked what happens if you remove all the entries in the Mounted Devices key. As long as the MBR shows a valid Active and bootable partition table entry, NTLDR will soldier on. The registry entry will be re-created and written upon a proper exit from XP. When you see it "Saving your settings..." this is one of the settings written to the registry.